John Bell
1 portrait matching these criteria:
- subject matching 'Regency Popular Culture'
- Overview
- Extended catalogue entry
Regency Portraits Catalogue
John Bell
by Unknown artist
circa 1801
11 5/8 in. x 8 1/4 in. (295 mm x 210 mm)
NPG 1983
This portraitback to top
The identification with Bell depends on a label formerly on the back and the title of the book Bell's Surgery. When it came before the Trustees in 1923 the Director announced that he was unable to substantiate its authenticity and nothing further has come to light since. The first volume of The Principles appeared in 1801, a date which accords reasonably with the subject's age and style of dress, but apart from a doubtful oil in the Wellcome Institute and a picture exhibited by Lonsdale RA 1807 (172) as ‘J. Bell Esq' no other portrait of him is recorded in the NPG archive.
Physical descriptionback to top
Three-quarter-length seated in a black coat, white neckcloth and bow-tie, resting his right hand beside a skull and papers on a green table-cloth left, holding Bell's Surgery on his knee.
Provenanceback to top
George Jacob Holyoake, founder of the Co-operative Society; his son Manfred Holyoake, picture restorer d. 1921, believed it to be by Raeburn and sold it to H. G. Mantle who sold it to the NPG 1923.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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.