Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue
Humphrey Wanley (1672-1726), Librarian and antiquary
- Gallery portraits
- All known portraits
- Biography and References
A summary list of portraits of Wanley appears in R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, pp 166-67.
c.1700?
Unfinished enamel attributed to Charles Boit, bust-length to right in yellow cloak with turban.
Welbeck (R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, no.252; illus. in NPG archive). A label in the 2nd Earl of Oxford’s hand, verso, identifies the sitter. Before 1695 Wanley had briefly studied miniature painting with Boit.
1711
Painting by Thomas Hill, three-quarter-length with tasselled turban, standing behind a stone lectern holding up a Greek text of Matthew 6:19-21, the MS life of Guthlac (now British Museum, Harleian Roll Y.6) partly unrolled on the desk, an inscribed oriental cushion stone in the foreground; inscribed and dated, verso. Society of Antiquaries (Scharf 1864, no.51; R. Bruce-Mitford, Society of Antiquaries of London, 1951, pp 32-33, illus.). A replica with a slightly altered left hand is in the Bodleian Library, inscribed and dated 1716, acquired in 1785 (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 90, no.225). A painting by Thomas Hill, ‘half length’ [i.e. a three-quarter-length] in the Oxford sale, 1st day, 8 March 1742, lot 30 (bought Vertue), could be either of these.
1716
Painting by Thomas Hill, see under 1711.
1717
Painting by Thomas Hill, see NPG 579.
1722
Painting by Thomas Hill, three-quarter-length seated, own dark hair, left hand in lap, right resting on a carved bust. British Museum, presented by Robert Westfaling 1761 (Sir Henry Ellis, List of Portraits suspended on the Walls of the Eastern Zoological Gallery, British Museum, 1843, no.28; illus. Connoisseur, CXLVII, 1961, p 117). On 8 May 1722 Wanley told Lord Harley that Hill would soon finish his picture ‘so as to furnish-out a good Performance upon a very mean Subject’; on the same day he told Schumacher (librarian to Peter the Great) that the portrait ‘goe’s on bravely, and will be his Master-piece. I am represented therein, as holding a fine Brass-Head of the Emperor Hadrian, bigger than the Life, and of Grecian Workmanship; which with other Antiquities, MSS. & rare Printed Books, have come in, since you went from hence [c.1 May].’ On 31 May Wanley told Schumacher ‘My Picture … will be finished about a fourtnight hence; [it] will then soon be deliver’d to Mr Stirling for your Use’ (Letters of Humfrey Wanley, ed. P. L. Heyworth, 1989, pp 444-45).
1723
Drawing by William Stukeley, profile, taken from the life on 26 October 1723. Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Eng. Misc. c.136). An unattributed drawing of Wanley was in the Oxford sale, 5th day, 12 March 1742, lot 16 [sic]. (There is no drawing of Wanley by Stukeley in the British Museum, cf. Joan Evans, Society of Antiquaries, 1956, p 36n1).
A cornelian by Charles Christian Reisen, engraved with Wanley’s head, belonged to Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, in 1741 (R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, p 166).
This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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.
c.1700?
Unfinished enamel attributed to Charles Boit, bust-length to right in yellow cloak with turban.
Welbeck (R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, no.252; illus. in NPG archive). A label in the 2nd Earl of Oxford’s hand, verso, identifies the sitter. Before 1695 Wanley had briefly studied miniature painting with Boit.
1711
Painting by Thomas Hill, three-quarter-length with tasselled turban, standing behind a stone lectern holding up a Greek text of Matthew 6:19-21, the MS life of Guthlac (now British Museum, Harleian Roll Y.6) partly unrolled on the desk, an inscribed oriental cushion stone in the foreground; inscribed and dated, verso. Society of Antiquaries (Scharf 1864, no.51; R. Bruce-Mitford, Society of Antiquaries of London, 1951, pp 32-33, illus.). A replica with a slightly altered left hand is in the Bodleian Library, inscribed and dated 1716, acquired in 1785 (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 90, no.225). A painting by Thomas Hill, ‘half length’ [i.e. a three-quarter-length] in the Oxford sale, 1st day, 8 March 1742, lot 30 (bought Vertue), could be either of these.
1716
Painting by Thomas Hill, see under 1711.
1717
Painting by Thomas Hill, see NPG 579.
1722
Painting by Thomas Hill, three-quarter-length seated, own dark hair, left hand in lap, right resting on a carved bust. British Museum, presented by Robert Westfaling 1761 (Sir Henry Ellis, List of Portraits suspended on the Walls of the Eastern Zoological Gallery, British Museum, 1843, no.28; illus. Connoisseur, CXLVII, 1961, p 117). On 8 May 1722 Wanley told Lord Harley that Hill would soon finish his picture ‘so as to furnish-out a good Performance upon a very mean Subject’; on the same day he told Schumacher (librarian to Peter the Great) that the portrait ‘goe’s on bravely, and will be his Master-piece. I am represented therein, as holding a fine Brass-Head of the Emperor Hadrian, bigger than the Life, and of Grecian Workmanship; which with other Antiquities, MSS. & rare Printed Books, have come in, since you went from hence [c.1 May].’ On 31 May Wanley told Schumacher ‘My Picture … will be finished about a fourtnight hence; [it] will then soon be deliver’d to Mr Stirling for your Use’ (Letters of Humfrey Wanley, ed. P. L. Heyworth, 1989, pp 444-45).
1723
Drawing by William Stukeley, profile, taken from the life on 26 October 1723. Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS Eng. Misc. c.136). An unattributed drawing of Wanley was in the Oxford sale, 5th day, 12 March 1742, lot 16 [sic]. (There is no drawing of Wanley by Stukeley in the British Museum, cf. Joan Evans, Society of Antiquaries, 1956, p 36n1).
A cornelian by Charles Christian Reisen, engraved with Wanley’s head, belonged to Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, in 1741 (R. W. Goulding, ‘The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures’, Wal. Soc., IV, 1916, p 166).
This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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.