Thomas Birch
- Overview
- Extended catalogue entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue
Thomas Birch
by Unknown artist
circa 1735
35 3/4 in. x 27 3/4 in. (908 mm x 705 mm)
NPG 522
This portraitback to top
NPG 522 is related to the much livelier painted oval, without hands, bequeathed by the sitter to the British Museum, [1] and datable from his will to 1735.
Footnotesback to top
1) Synopsis or Guide Book to the British Museum, Part VI, Portraits, 1843 (26); G. P. Harding, List of Portraits ... in Various Mansions of the United Kingdom ... MS, c.1804, NPG archives, II, p 233.
Physical descriptionback to top
Pale blue eyes, strongly marked eyebrows, fresh complexion, grey wig; black gown with white bands, white shirt sleeves just visible at wrists, a small ring on fifth finger of his left hand; two volumes on table with dark green table-cloth, the smaller with traces of lettering on the spine; dark brown background; lit from the right.
Provenanceback to top
Transferred, 1879, from the British Museum; unknown before 1838, date of the first issued list of British Museum portraits. [1] It may well have been there much earlier.
1) Synopsis or Guide Book to the British Museum, Part VI, Portraits, 1843 (46).
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, 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.
View all known portraits for Thomas Birch
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