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Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge of Lahore

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Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge of Lahore

replica by Sir Francis Grant
oil on canvas, 1849-1876, based on a work of 1849
50 1/8 in. x 40 in. (1273 mm x 1016 mm)
Given by Sir Francis Grant, 1876
Primary Collection
NPG 437

Images

This frame was made by Henry Critchfield, the…

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Sir Francis Grant (1803-1878), Portrait painter and President of the Royal Academy. Artist associated with 102 portraits, Sitter associated with 21 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Hardinge served in the Napoleonic wars during which he lost his left hand. He became a Tory MP (1820) and served as Secretary at War (1828-30 and 1841-4). He then served as Governor-General of India (1844-7), his tenure witnessing the first Sikh war, and was made a Field Marshal in 1855. This replica by Francis Grant of his 1849 portrait of Hardinge was given to the Gallery by the artist in 1876. Hardinge wears the star of the Bath and the sword which Napoleon wore at Waterloo, which was presented to him by the Duke of Wellington in 1816. The Indian landscape which forms the background recalls Hardinge's campaigns in that country. The frame was made by Henry Critchfield, the Gallery's framemaker, in a style reminiscent of the frames favoured by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the early years of the nineteenth century.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG D35407: Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge of Lahore (after)
  • NPG D35408: Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge of Lahore (after)

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Smartify image discovery app
  • Bayly, Christopher, The Raj: India and the British 1600-1947, 1990 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 19 October 1990 - 17 March 1991), p. 232
  • Ormond, Richard, Early Victorian Portraits, 1973, p. 212
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 280
  • Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 180 Read entry

    Gilt compo on pine, mitred and pinned with corner blocks, the inner slip water gilt. 6 inches wide including slip.

    This replica of Sir Francis Grant's 1849 portrait of the former governor-general of India, Lord Hardinge, was given to the Gallery by the artist in 1876. The frame was made by Henry Critchfield, the Gallery's framemaker, at a cost of £5.10s on 14 September 1876.

    In type this running pattern of intertwining scrolls and foliage on an ogee section is not unlike the Lawrence frames used in the 1840s on F. R. Say's portraits for the Peel Gallery (see NPG 1805). Critchfield made rather similar frames in the late 1870s and early 1880s for several early Victorian portraits, and it may be that this somewhat old-fashioned frame type was seen by George Scharf, the Gallery's Director, as appropriate for such pictures. In framing the portrait of Hardinge, however, Scharf must surely have been aware that Sir Francis Grant, a Gallery trustee, normally used rather different frames on his own pictures (see NPG 6338).

    The frame has been altered so that it is now a 'door frame' or 'front loader', with bolts at the top allowing the glass and canvas to be removed without taking the picture off the wall.

Placesback to top

  • Place portrayed: India (India)

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1849back to top

Current affairs

Benjamin Disraeli becomes Conservative leader in the House of Commons.
Bedford College for Women is founded, following on from the foundation of Queen's College for Women the previous year.
Henry Mayhew, the social researcher and reform advocate, begins publishing his extensive statistical survey into the living conditions of urban communities, London Labour and the London Poor in the Morning Chronicle.

Art and science

With the death of his father Johann Strauss the Elder, Johann Baptist Strauss, the Austrian violinist and composer combines his and his father's orchestra, becoming known as 'the Waltz King'. His famous waltzes include The Blue Danube (1867). Dante Gabriel Rossetti paints his sister, the poet Christina, in The Girlhood of Mary Virgin.

International

Rome is briefly proclaimed a republic after the papal states are overthrown by Italian republicans. Napoleon's dependency on French Catholics leads him however to help restore papal authority. The restoration of Austrian military rule in Italy further darkens hopes of a self-ruling Italian nationhood.
Communist riots are suppressed in Paris.

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