Early Victorian Portraits Catalogue

Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860), General and historian

There is a painting by himself (in profile) in the collection of his descendant, Mrs M. R. M. Kennedy, engraved by W. H. Egleton (example in NPG); another painting called Napier by an unknown artist (showing the sitter as a young man), possibly also a self-portrait, is in the same collection; a painting by G. Jones was recorded by E. Farrer, Portraits in Suffolk Houses (West) (1908), p 25, in the collection of Sir Charles Bunbury; a painting by S. Gambardella of c.1845 is in the Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London, sketched by G. Scharf, Sir George Scharf's Trustees' Sketch Books (NPG archives), IV, 29; a painting by an unknown artist of c.1845 is also at Apsley House; Napier appears in 'The Peninsular Heroes' by J. P. Knight, in the collection of the Marquess of Londonderry, exhibited RA, 1848 (321), engraved by F. Bromley, published 1847 (example in British Museum); a painting by T. Mogford was exhibited RA, 1847 (509); a drawing by G. F. Watts was formerly in the collection of Lord Aberdare, exhibited SKM, 1868 (548), and VE, 1892 (376), anonymously engraved (example in NPG) for Life of W. F. P. Napier, edited H. A. Bruce (1864), II, frontispiece; a miniature of 'Major Napier' (possibly this sitter, who became a major in 1813) by A. E. Chalon was exhibited RA, 1813 (436); a miniature by R. Smith was exhibited RA, 1855 (1062); there is an anonymous engraving, after a miniature by Miss E. Jones (example in NPG), for H. A. Bruce, I, frontispiece, reproduced R. Lawrence, Charles Napier, Friend and Fighter (1952), facing a woodcut, after a photograph by Kilburn, was published ILN, XXXVI (1860), 172.


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.