William Thomas Brande

Inscriptionback to top

Incised under shoulders of figure on cut-away: Troye fecit:
Inscribed in ink in an old hand, on a label on the back of the frame: This portrait of W. P. Brande - Professor/of Chemistry, Royal Institution, Albemarle/Street, London, & one of the Secretaries/of the Royal Society - was executed/for M^rs Daniell wife of George Daniell/Barrister at law, & mother of Jno. Fred^c./Daniell, Professor of Chemistry, King's/Coll. Lond. & forⁿ [foreign] Sec^y of the Roy^l. Society/The date of its execution,/M^r Tho^s Wilkinson conjectures, may/be in or between the years 1814 & 1820/The likeness excellent/T Wilkinson
Below this is a printed cutting from The Times of February 1866, mentioning Brande's death.

This portraitback to top

The identification of this medallion rests on the inscription. This may have been written by a certain Major Thomas Wilkinson of the Indian army, who was a member of the Royal Institution from 1847-1857 (Brande retired from the Royal Institution in 1852). John Frederic Daniell (1790-1845), mentioned in the label, was a distinguished physicist. The identity of the artist is still obscure. Another similarly signed medallion of the Countess of Stamford is in the collection of the Earl of Stamford; the signature has sometimes been read as 'Troyes' (see R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1953, p 400), but the squiggle after the 'e', which the NPG medallion also has, seems to be merely a flourish. E. J. Pyke (information kindly communicated to compiler) has tentatively suggested that the artist may have been Jean Baptiste Troy (or Troye), who is known to have been in England in the early 19th century. His son, Edward Troye (1808-74), became a successful painter in America; for him and his father, see the Dictionary of American Biography and the New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America (1957).

Provenanceback to top

Mrs George Daniell; purchased from Daniel Shackleton, 1970.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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 William Thomas Brande