Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Bt

Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Bt, by Thomas Phillips, 1834 -NPG 34 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Bt

by Thomas Phillips
1834
30 in. x 24 3/4 in. (762 mm x 629 mm)
NPG 34

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated lower right near shoulder: TP 1834

This portraitback to top

The portrait is first recorded in Phillips's Sitter Book as 'April 9 1834 Sr Francis Burdett 705 3/4 Exhibited'. According to a letter from Lady Burdett-Coutts, the sitter's daughter, it was commissioned by her cousin, Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart, a champion of Poland against Russian aggression and a keen admirer of Burdett's passion for liberty: 'I consider it a good picture and like my dear Father and it is also an original picture; indeed I may say it has never been out of the family since it was painted by Phillips for my cousin' (letter from Lady Burdett-Coutts in NPG archive). Lord Dudley died in 1854 and following a request for a portrait of her father from Lord Stanhope, then Chairman of Trustees, she presented it in 1858. In the same year it was photographed by Caldesi for a bas-relief panel on the base of the Wellington statue in Phoenix Park, Dublin, the Trustees of the monument believing 'there is no other portrait so authentic' (letter from Colonel T. A. Larcom in NPG archive).

Physical descriptionback to top

Head and shoulders to left in dark brown coat, grey waistcoat, white shirt and bow-tie; hazel eyes, sparse grey hair, ruddy complexion; plain brown background.

Provenanceback to top

Painted for Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart and bought at the sale of his effects 1854 by Baroness Burdett Coutts who gave it to the NPG in 1858.

Exhibitionsback to top

RA 1834 (193); 11 Downing Street 1896 on long loan, dates unspecified.


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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