Regency Portraits Catalogue

Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), Solicitor-General and law reformer

c.1800
Oil by Hoppner formerly at Holland House (NPG 3325).

1806-10
Oil by Lawrence (NPG 1171).

c.1806
Oil by George Dawe known from a mezzotint and chalk style engraved by Henry Dawe traced by Scharf in 1859, three-quarter-length seated to right reading papers (Sir George Scharf’s Trustees’ Sketchbooks, II, 119).

c.1810
Oil attributed to Owen in GAC (16044), acquired from a descendant in 1982.

1813
Wedgwood medallion in Barlaston Museum, profile to left from a model by Henning 1813, reproduced Robin Reilly & George Savage, Wedgwood: the Portrait Medallions, 1973, p 292.

1816
Bust by Gahagan exhibited RA 1816 (940).

1818
Drawing by William Behnes, half-length in legal robes leaning on a brief in Lincoln's Inn 1818, known from a line and stipple by Wedgwood.

c.1818
Oil by Cregan in private collection Herefordshire, mezzotint by S. W. Reynolds junior (Alfred Whitman, S. W. Reynolds, 1903, 520 and reproduced Patrick Medd, Romilly, 1968, p 209).

Wax relief by Percy at Sotheby's 16 May 1957 (97), half-length in black coat, set in red and black curtains.

Posthumous
1818
Romilly took his own life a few days after the death of his wife. A quantity of engraved portraits followed the event, one of the best being a stipple by Kennerley from a portrait by Bestland, perhaps the oil on wood panel in Harvard Law Society collection.

A stipple by Meyer 'from a Drawing by T. Maynard in the Possession of Peter Dupuy Abbott Esq' shows him in legal robes holding a quill.

A stipple engraving by Charles Penny from a painting by William McCall was published by Alexander Smith 16 November 1818.

A posthumous bust by Chantrey was considered but apparently never executed.



This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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.