Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848), Prime Minister

Statesman; barrister, 1804; MP from 1806; Irish secretary under Canning, 1827, and under Wellington, 1828; succeeded to title, 1829; home secretary under Grey, 1830-4; prime minister, 1834 and 1835-41; mentor and adviser to the young Queen Victoria.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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.