Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue
John Hough (1651-1743), Bishop of Worcester (1717)
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
'There is a picture of my Lord Bishop at Lambeth, by Kneller that cost thirty guineas, which is said to be like, but has lost its colour', wrote Richard Congreve in 1742, 'My Lady Clark has one too by Ryley or Ryland (who, if he had lived, as 'twas thought' would have exceeded Kneller) that my Lord thinks to be the most like him of any, though there are two or three by Jervas at Hartlebury, one of which, a half piece, is not unlike. There was a print taken of him, lately, by Sanby [sic] a bookseller in London, unknown to him, that he says is the dullest thing he ever saw, and has endeavoured to suppress it'. [1] Dr Nash, author of the history of Worcestershire, took a gloomier view: ‘We have not a good portrait of this worthy man: the mezzotinto doth not give an idea of that infinite fund of chearfulness and good-humour, which the bishop enjoyed to his last moments'. [2]
The Riley portrait must have been painted about 1690; the artist died in the following year. It was engraved by R. Williams (F. O'Donoghue and Sir Henry M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits ... in the British Museum, 1908-25, 5). The Kneller, still at Lambeth Palace, is signed and inscribed Bp. Hough of Oxford, 1690. It was first engraved in 1811 by Caroline Watson as the frontispiece to Wilmot's Life of Hough. The portraits by Jervas are not now known unless there is some link with the type by the Welsh painter and poet John Dyer (1699-1757). There is a mezzotint, Done from ye Life by J. Faber. A°. 1715; the one detested by the sitter done by the younger Faber when Hough was ninety-one, published c.1742 by the bookseller W. Sandby (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1878-83, 192), is given as after Dyer. The corresponding oil at Hartlebury is of 1736, the authority for Dyer's authorship presumably being the Hurd MS there. [3] A version dated 1734, at Magdalen College, Oxford, bequeathed by Hough to his kinsman Theophilus Biddulph was given to the college in 1818 by the latter's widow [4] and another was acquired by the See of Lichfield, 1941. Others were at Sotheby's, 5 February 1969, lot 49, and at Bonhams, 26 June 1969, lot 191. An undated portrait by an unknown hand was acquired by the Bodleian, 1759. [5] A head, engraved by T. Holloway 'from a drawing by Richardson', is conceivably after J. Richardson, the elder, and, if the wig is accurately rendered, looks within a few years of 1720. An anonymous drawing of another type, formerly owned by Horace Walpole, now belongs to W. S. Lewis, Farmington, Connecticut. A bust by the local sculptor and architect T. White was placed in All Saints Church, Worcester, in thanksgiving for the Bishop's gift of £1,000 to its rebuilding, c.1738-42. [6] A monument by Roubiliac, 1746, is in Worcester Cathedral. [7]
1) 'Table-Talk of Bishop Hough', ed. W. D. Macray, Oxford Historical Society, XVI (Collectanea, II), 1890, p 390.
2) S. Shaw, The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, 1798-1801, I, p 277.
3) J. Nankivell, The Collection of Portraits in Oils of Bishop Richard Hurd at Hartlebury Castle, 1953, p 43. Mr Ingamells reports that the portrait is signed or inscribed: Dr Hough/Bishop of Worcester/Aged 86 1736/Dyer;
4) R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the Possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, 1912-25, II, p 226, (54); and a copy (55).
5) Ibid, I, p 97 (242).
6) R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, 1953, p 430; W. R. Buchanan-Dunlop, 'All Saints Church, Worcester', Transactions of the Worcester Archaeological Society, NS, XIII, 1936, p 18.
7) M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530-1830, 1964, p 105, pl.80.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.
The Riley portrait must have been painted about 1690; the artist died in the following year. It was engraved by R. Williams (F. O'Donoghue and Sir Henry M. Hake, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits ... in the British Museum, 1908-25, 5). The Kneller, still at Lambeth Palace, is signed and inscribed Bp. Hough of Oxford, 1690. It was first engraved in 1811 by Caroline Watson as the frontispiece to Wilmot's Life of Hough. The portraits by Jervas are not now known unless there is some link with the type by the Welsh painter and poet John Dyer (1699-1757). There is a mezzotint, Done from ye Life by J. Faber. A°. 1715; the one detested by the sitter done by the younger Faber when Hough was ninety-one, published c.1742 by the bookseller W. Sandby (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1878-83, 192), is given as after Dyer. The corresponding oil at Hartlebury is of 1736, the authority for Dyer's authorship presumably being the Hurd MS there. [3] A version dated 1734, at Magdalen College, Oxford, bequeathed by Hough to his kinsman Theophilus Biddulph was given to the college in 1818 by the latter's widow [4] and another was acquired by the See of Lichfield, 1941. Others were at Sotheby's, 5 February 1969, lot 49, and at Bonhams, 26 June 1969, lot 191. An undated portrait by an unknown hand was acquired by the Bodleian, 1759. [5] A head, engraved by T. Holloway 'from a drawing by Richardson', is conceivably after J. Richardson, the elder, and, if the wig is accurately rendered, looks within a few years of 1720. An anonymous drawing of another type, formerly owned by Horace Walpole, now belongs to W. S. Lewis, Farmington, Connecticut. A bust by the local sculptor and architect T. White was placed in All Saints Church, Worcester, in thanksgiving for the Bishop's gift of £1,000 to its rebuilding, c.1738-42. [6] A monument by Roubiliac, 1746, is in Worcester Cathedral. [7]
1) 'Table-Talk of Bishop Hough', ed. W. D. Macray, Oxford Historical Society, XVI (Collectanea, II), 1890, p 390.
2) S. Shaw, The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, 1798-1801, I, p 277.
3) J. Nankivell, The Collection of Portraits in Oils of Bishop Richard Hurd at Hartlebury Castle, 1953, p 43. Mr Ingamells reports that the portrait is signed or inscribed: Dr Hough/Bishop of Worcester/Aged 86 1736/Dyer;
4) R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the Possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, 1912-25, II, p 226, (54); and a copy (55).
5) Ibid, I, p 97 (242).
6) R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, 1953, p 430; W. R. Buchanan-Dunlop, 'All Saints Church, Worcester', Transactions of the Worcester Archaeological Society, NS, XIII, 1936, p 18.
7) M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530-1830, 1964, p 105, pl.80.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.