George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham

This portraitback to top

The portrait was acquired from Dr Coekelberghs without either an early history or artist attribution. A half-length version or copy in Morgan-Grenville collection was shown to the NPG in 1955 then attributed to Hoppner by whom there is no record of a portrait of Buckingham though he certainly painted several of the family. The work of NPG 5168 is competent if rather crude but certainly below Hoppner's level and may have been painted in Dublin during Buckingham's second tenure of office as Lord-Lieutenant 1787-9. The Garter insignia (awarded 1786, installed 1801) appears to have been painted at the same time as the rest of the portrait.
One possible candidate is J. K. Sherwin who painted 'The Installation Dinner of the Order of St Patrick, Dublin Castle 17 March 1783', where Buckingham (then Earl Temple) is shown full-face proposing the toast; Sherwin is better known as an engraver. Another possibility is Robert Hunter who painted him as 'Sovereign of the Order of St Patrick 1783' and Buckingham is known to have sat 'a few years ago to Mr Hunter' (Dublin Chronicle, 22-4 January 1788 (cit. W. G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, I, 1913, p 539); Hunter was an exact and delicate artist painting mainly small whole-lengths in the manner of Devis. A third is Francis Robert West, the second of a family prominent in Dublin art teaching at that time but known mainly for small pastel and chalk portraits; however in the Stowe sale, 12 September 1848, lot 42 'George Marquis of Buckingham - small whole length - (West)', following lot 41 'small sketch' by Sherwin and bought by A. George for 5 guineas, may conceivably have been a study for NPG 5168; this may also have been the 'small whole-length portrait of George Grenville in robes with the Order of the Garter' (unattributed) in the Stowe sale 4-28 July 1921 lot 1650a. The possibility that the West referred to in the first Stowe sale may have been Benjamin West PRA has been put forward without much conviction. In fact none of these suggestions is convincing and 'Unknown Artist' must stand until further evidence appears.

Physical descriptionback to top

Whole-length standing to right in peer's robes, insignia of KP and KG, holding papers in right hand, left on embroidered waistcoat, his right stocking brown (?underpaint), left grey; powdered hair, dark eyes, fresh complexion.

Provenanceback to top

Bought from Dr Denis Coekelberghs, Brussels 1977.


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.

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