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Robert Clive

3 of 9 portraits of Robert Clive

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Robert Clive

studio of Nathaniel Dance (later Sir Nathaniel Holland, Bt)
oil on canvas, circa 1773 or after
50 1/4 in. x 40 1/4 in. (1276 mm x 1022 mm)
Purchased, 1858
Primary Collection
NPG 39

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The prototype of this popular portrait by Dance is presumably the full-length in the collection at Powis Castle. The portrait shows Clive in uniform with the ribbon and star of the order of the Bath, with a battle scene in the background. More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

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Events of 1773back to top

Current affairs

Tea Act grants the struggling East India Company a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
Brokers who meet to do business in Jonathan's coffee house in Threadneedle Street, London decide to call themselves the Stock Exchange.
General Turnpike Act regulates the system of road tolls.

Art and science

Samuel Johnson and James Boswell undertake a journey together to the western islands of Scotland.
Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer debuts in London's Covent Garden Theatre.

International

Captain James Cook becomes the first European explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.
Boston Tea Party demonstrates opposition in the colonies to the import duty on tea. Some fifty colonists, disguised as Indians, tip a valuable cargo of tea into Boston harbour as a protest against the British tax.
Responding to pressure from the Catholic monarchs of Europe, Clement XIV abolishes the Jesuit Order.

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Caroline Wigin

05 July 2018, 11:07

I have a painting of Clive’s sister Judith Clive who was married to Thomas Wolley of Winchester Street. He owned slaves and plantations in Dominica which he left to her. She must have disposed of them prior to writing her own will.

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