Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue
John Horne Tooke (1736-1812), Radical politician; MP and philologist
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
‘When a young man, he was accustomed to dress genteelly; and as he possessed a good person and agreeable manners, displayed much of the look and mien of a person of fashion ... Of late years he has left off powder, and this circumstance adds not a little to the appearance of age...he is still remarkably clean and neat in everything respecting his person’ (Public Characters of 1801-02, pp 115-16).
1769
Engraving by Richard Houston, seated at table with John Wilkes and John Glynn, see NPG 1944.
c.1769
Anon. mezzotint, half-length oval, with wig, gown and bands (J. C. Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, IV, p 1733, no.87). Similar to the profile seen in NPG 1944.
1777
Painting by Richard Brompton, three-quarter length, seated holding Mercury’s winged helmet. Manchester City Art Gallery (1913.16). Stephens (A. Stephens, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, 1813, II, pp 502-03) described it as a full length painted while he was a prisoner in the King’s Bench; Tooke had had the frame regilded a few months before his death. Engraved J. Corner 1791 (half length, without wig; European Mag.).
1791
Painting by Thomas Hardy, see NPG 13.
1792
Anon. engraving, bust length, with curled wig, from an original painting (Literary Mag.); copy in stipple 1828 (Encyclopaedia Londinensis).
1793
Medallion by James Tassie (J. M. Gray, James and William Tassie, a biographical and critical sketch with a catalogue of their portrait medallions of modern personages, 1894, no.388; Scottish NPG, PG 586).
1794
Drawing by Cruikshanks [Isaac Cruikshank?], engraved G. Murray, half-length oval, with wig.
A number of medals were produced marking the acquittal in November of Tooke, Hardy and Thelwall from charges of sedition (cf. L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960: The Accession of George III to the Death of William IV, 1980, nos.377, 380); two unattributed bronze medals, one showing Tooke bust-length to left with the inscription BRITISH JUSTICE DISPLAYED ..., the other with a profile bust to right and the inscription TRIED FOR HIGH TREASON ..., are in the NPG reference collection (D7051 & D7052).
c.1795-1800
Silhouette by John Field, bust. Sotheby’s, 16 October 1978, lot 117.
1795
Anon. mezzotint, half-length oval, lettered John Horn Tooke Esqr; pub. 12 September 1795 (J. C. Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, IV, p 1746, no.145a). An anon. engraving, half-length seated, with wig, appears to date from the same time.
1797
Engraving by W. Ridley, bust-length oval, with wig (Junius 1797, II, f.p.128). Copied by Hopwood 1805.
1798
Drawing by I. White, bust length, his own dark hair, engraved M. Tomkins.
1800
Bust by Thomas Banks, draped, with his own hair. From the Burdett Coutts collection (see C. F. Bell, Annals of Thomas Banks, 1938, pp 137-38). Engraved E. Bocquet (three quarters); anon. (profile) for Public Characters of 1801-02). The bust is seen in the background of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Bt, by William Ross (NPG 2056; see R. J. B. Walker, National Portrait Gallery, Regency Portraits, II, pl.164). A. Stephens, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, 1813, II, p 503, said that the Burdett bust was ‘intended as a present to St John’s College, Cambridge’, but he attributed it to Bacon sr.
c.1800
Stipple engraving by H. Richter, bust length, his own white hair.
1803
A frame with five portraits including Tooke, by Samuel Percy, exhibited RA 1803 (1027).
1810
Plaster bust by Francis Chantrey (A. Yarrington, I. D. Lieberman, A. Potts, M. Baker, 'An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey, RA, at the Royal Academy, 1809-1941', Wal. Soc., 1994, no.81b), exhibited RA 1811 (945); ‘an old man, wasted by sickness, with a night cap on his head, totally unlike his former self - but fearfully like him at the present moment’ (A. Stephens, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, 1813, II, p 411). Chantrey sent J. R. Smith a plaster in 1810 (a bust appears in a pastel by Smith of Tooke’s illegitimate daughters, Mrs Mary Harte and Miss Charlotte Tooke, sold Sotheby’s, 16 November 1989, lot 43). Casts dated 1810 are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1992, III, no.773) and the Yale Center for British Art (B1977.14.2). A cast from an intaglio by R. Clint from Chantrey’s bust, exhibited RA 1827 (989).
A marble bust, commissioned by Watson Taylor in 1818 and completed in 1820, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (A. Yarrington, I. D. Lieberman, A. Potts, M. Baker, 'An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey, RA, at the Royal Academy, 1809-1941', Wal. Soc., 1994, no.81b, fig.60). In 1810 Tooke commissioned his own tombstone (Ealing churchyard) from Chantrey and wrote his own epitaph (A. Yarrington, I. D. Lieberman, A. Potts, M. Baker, 'An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey, RA, at the Royal Academy, 1809-1941', Wal. Soc., 1994, no.24b). For a drawing by Chantrey c.1810, see NPG 316a(122).
1811
Pastel by J. R. Smith, whole-length recumbent on a sofa wearing a night cap, beneath a tent-like canopy surmounted by the eagle of Zeus, a bust of Athene on the wall beyond; at his feet a manuscript inscribed The third vol. Diversions of Purley (never published); other books are lettered Manu/scripts and Sanctius. Formerly with Walter Bromley-Davenport. Exhibited RA 1811 (333). Engraved W. Ward 1811.
Tooke was frequently portrayed in caricature, of which the following provide stimulating likenesses:
The Parson of Brentford 1769 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, 4225) and The Macaroni Parson 1769 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, 4827); Guy Faux setting Fire to the Pillars of the London Tavern 1773 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 5104); Protheus on Privileges 1791 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, VI, 7825; illus. E S Turner, Unholy Pursuits, 1998 p 193); The devil hauling Tooke, Hardy and Thelwall into Hell by H. Wigstead (d. 1793), seen by Farington on 8 June 1796; Two Pairs of Portraits 1798 by James Gillray (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, VII, 9270).
Doubtful Portraits
Unverified portraits of Tooke include a painting by John Opie listed by A. Earland, John Opie and his Circle, 1911, p 319, as ‘about July 1803’ and painted for Lt.-Col. Harwood, and a miniature by Samuel Collins, exhibited Burlington Fine Arts Club 1889 (XVII 40) and Royal House of Guelph, New Gallery, London, 1891 (1037) lent J. Whitehead.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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.
1769
Engraving by Richard Houston, seated at table with John Wilkes and John Glynn, see NPG 1944.
c.1769
Anon. mezzotint, half-length oval, with wig, gown and bands (J. C. Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, IV, p 1733, no.87). Similar to the profile seen in NPG 1944.
1777
Painting by Richard Brompton, three-quarter length, seated holding Mercury’s winged helmet. Manchester City Art Gallery (1913.16). Stephens (A. Stephens, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, 1813, II, pp 502-03) described it as a full length painted while he was a prisoner in the King’s Bench; Tooke had had the frame regilded a few months before his death. Engraved J. Corner 1791 (half length, without wig; European Mag.).
1791
Painting by Thomas Hardy, see NPG 13.
1792
Anon. engraving, bust length, with curled wig, from an original painting (Literary Mag.); copy in stipple 1828 (Encyclopaedia Londinensis).
1793
Medallion by James Tassie (J. M. Gray, James and William Tassie, a biographical and critical sketch with a catalogue of their portrait medallions of modern personages, 1894, no.388; Scottish NPG, PG 586).
1794
Drawing by Cruikshanks [Isaac Cruikshank?], engraved G. Murray, half-length oval, with wig.
A number of medals were produced marking the acquittal in November of Tooke, Hardy and Thelwall from charges of sedition (cf. L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960: The Accession of George III to the Death of William IV, 1980, nos.377, 380); two unattributed bronze medals, one showing Tooke bust-length to left with the inscription BRITISH JUSTICE DISPLAYED ..., the other with a profile bust to right and the inscription TRIED FOR HIGH TREASON ..., are in the NPG reference collection (D7051 & D7052).
c.1795-1800
Silhouette by John Field, bust. Sotheby’s, 16 October 1978, lot 117.
1795
Anon. mezzotint, half-length oval, lettered John Horn Tooke Esqr; pub. 12 September 1795 (J. C. Smith, British Mezzotint Portraits, IV, p 1746, no.145a). An anon. engraving, half-length seated, with wig, appears to date from the same time.
1797
Engraving by W. Ridley, bust-length oval, with wig (Junius 1797, II, f.p.128). Copied by Hopwood 1805.
1798
Drawing by I. White, bust length, his own dark hair, engraved M. Tomkins.
1800
Bust by Thomas Banks, draped, with his own hair. From the Burdett Coutts collection (see C. F. Bell, Annals of Thomas Banks, 1938, pp 137-38). Engraved E. Bocquet (three quarters); anon. (profile) for Public Characters of 1801-02). The bust is seen in the background of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Bt, by William Ross (NPG 2056; see R. J. B. Walker, National Portrait Gallery, Regency Portraits, II, pl.164). A. Stephens, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, 1813, II, p 503, said that the Burdett bust was ‘intended as a present to St John’s College, Cambridge’, but he attributed it to Bacon sr.
c.1800
Stipple engraving by H. Richter, bust length, his own white hair.
1803
A frame with five portraits including Tooke, by Samuel Percy, exhibited RA 1803 (1027).
1810
Plaster bust by Francis Chantrey (A. Yarrington, I. D. Lieberman, A. Potts, M. Baker, 'An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey, RA, at the Royal Academy, 1809-1941', Wal. Soc., 1994, no.81b), exhibited RA 1811 (945); ‘an old man, wasted by sickness, with a night cap on his head, totally unlike his former self - but fearfully like him at the present moment’ (A. Stephens, Memoirs of John Horne Tooke, 1813, II, p 411). Chantrey sent J. R. Smith a plaster in 1810 (a bust appears in a pastel by Smith of Tooke’s illegitimate daughters, Mrs Mary Harte and Miss Charlotte Tooke, sold Sotheby’s, 16 November 1989, lot 43). Casts dated 1810 are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1992, III, no.773) and the Yale Center for British Art (B1977.14.2). A cast from an intaglio by R. Clint from Chantrey’s bust, exhibited RA 1827 (989).
A marble bust, commissioned by Watson Taylor in 1818 and completed in 1820, is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (A. Yarrington, I. D. Lieberman, A. Potts, M. Baker, 'An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey, RA, at the Royal Academy, 1809-1941', Wal. Soc., 1994, no.81b, fig.60). In 1810 Tooke commissioned his own tombstone (Ealing churchyard) from Chantrey and wrote his own epitaph (A. Yarrington, I. D. Lieberman, A. Potts, M. Baker, 'An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey, RA, at the Royal Academy, 1809-1941', Wal. Soc., 1994, no.24b). For a drawing by Chantrey c.1810, see NPG 316a(122).
1811
Pastel by J. R. Smith, whole-length recumbent on a sofa wearing a night cap, beneath a tent-like canopy surmounted by the eagle of Zeus, a bust of Athene on the wall beyond; at his feet a manuscript inscribed The third vol. Diversions of Purley (never published); other books are lettered Manu/scripts and Sanctius. Formerly with Walter Bromley-Davenport. Exhibited RA 1811 (333). Engraved W. Ward 1811.
Tooke was frequently portrayed in caricature, of which the following provide stimulating likenesses:
The Parson of Brentford 1769 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, 4225) and The Macaroni Parson 1769 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, 4827); Guy Faux setting Fire to the Pillars of the London Tavern 1773 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, V, 5104); Protheus on Privileges 1791 (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, VI, 7825; illus. E S Turner, Unholy Pursuits, 1998 p 193); The devil hauling Tooke, Hardy and Thelwall into Hell by H. Wigstead (d. 1793), seen by Farington on 8 June 1796; Two Pairs of Portraits 1798 by James Gillray (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, VII, 9270).
Doubtful Portraits
Unverified portraits of Tooke include a painting by John Opie listed by A. Earland, John Opie and his Circle, 1911, p 319, as ‘about July 1803’ and painted for Lt.-Col. Harwood, and a miniature by Samuel Collins, exhibited Burlington Fine Arts Club 1889 (XVII 40) and Royal House of Guelph, New Gallery, London, 1891 (1037) lent J. Whitehead.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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.