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Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis

15 of 262 portraits by Thomas Gainsborough

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis

by Thomas Gainsborough
oil on canvas, feigned oval, 1783
29 1/2 in. x 24 1/2 in. (749 mm x 622 mm)
Purchased, 1869
Primary Collection
NPG 281

On display in Room 14 at the National Portrait Gallery

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Artistback to top

  • Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Portrait and landscape painter. Artist associated with 262 portraits, Sitter in 8 portraits.

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Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1783back to top

Current affairs

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne resigns as Prime Minister over the proposed peace terms with the United States. Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford briefly forms a government with Charles James Fox in April but is succeeded by a government under William Pitt the Younger who, at the age of 24 becomes the youngest British Prime Minister ever to take office.
The highwayman John Austin is the last person to be publicly executed at Tyburn.

Art and science

Physician and natural philosopher Erasmus Darwin begins publication of A System of Vegetables, a translation from Latin of the work of Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in which he coins many common English names of plants.

International

Defeat of Charles James Fox's India Bill in the House of Lords which aimed to assist ailing British East India Company.
American War of Independence: Treaty of Paris is signed by Britain, France, Spain and the United States, under which the British government recognises US independence. Britain begins to evacuate loyalists and the last British troops leave New York City three months later.

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