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Sir John Francis Edward Acton, 6th Bt

1 of 2 portraits of Sir John Francis Edward Acton, 6th Bt

Sir John Francis Edward Acton, 6th Bt, by Peter Edward Stroehling, circa 1792 -NPG 4082 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Sir John Francis Edward Acton, 6th Bt

by Peter Edward Stroehling
circa 1792
3 7/8 in. x 3 in. (98 mm x 76 mm)
NPG 4082

Inscriptionback to top

Signed bottom left: Stroely; the backing paper inscribed: Il Ministre/Jean Edouard Acton

This portraitback to top

La paix de S. M. Le Roy de Sardin probably concerns the defeat of the French assault on Sardinia in 1792-93. Stroehling is said to have been in Naples c.1792, before going to Vienna and St Petersburg in 1796. [1] Acton had received the Order of St Januarius in 1783 and was chief minister 1789-95, as described on the contemporary backing of NPG 4082.

Footnotesback to top

1) L. R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, 1964, II, p 790.

Physical descriptionback to top

Clear grey eyes, white hair; dark blue-grey coat with silver lace and a rust-coloured lining; white shirt and neckcloth; wearing the pink ribbon and star of St Januarius and the badge of St Stephen; before him a paper inscribed: La paix/de S. M. Le Roy/de Sardin ...; in the background an eruption of Vesuvius.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from G. A. Kenyon, Dublin, 1958.


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.

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