William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

This portraitback to top

Although treated by Scharf [1] as a replica, it is a later variant copy, probably early 19th century, of the three-quarter length at Chevening, showing the sitter with left arm extended. Signed and dated 177(?), this was painted for the sitter and presented to Philip Lord Stanhope [2] whose wife wrote, December 1769, asking Chatham to sit. The picture was evidently well in hand if not finished, by 12 October 1772: 'To begin with the picture - I can't tell you how pleased we all are to hear it is so like ...'. [3] The date is corroborated by correspondence between Sir Alexander Hood and Chatham, 5 November 1772: 'Chatham is sitting for Brompton, and Sir Charles Saunders says he will also sit for Brompton, as Chatham approves of him'. [4] Brompton exhibited at the Society of Artists, 1773 (44), 'A nobleman in the robes of the house of lords, half length'. Walpole comments: 'Lord Chatham. strong likeness, but raw & hard.' [5] It is not clear from the published extracts when the portrait now at Chevening arrived there, but if it came in 1772, then the one seen by Walpole was perhaps the replica, in the Sidmouth family, believed to have been given by the sitter to his doctor, Henry Addington (1713-90), father of the prime minister. Though the type was engraved whole length by E. Fisher, it is unlikely that the Chevening picture was ever more than a three-quarter length. Copies are at Wilton, [6] and whole length, with the Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1941. [7] A seated variant, also full length, shows the sitter pointing towards A Plan [?] of Reconciliation between Great Britain and the American Colonies. [8] A half length by Brompton was seen by Farington in the Speaker's house, 3 January 1798. [9]

Footnotesback to top

1) Sir George Scharf, Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures, Busts & etc. in the National Portrait Gallery, new and enlarged edition, 1888, p 102.
2) i.e. 2nd Earl Stanhope (1714-86) who married, 1745, Grisel, daughter of Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning: G. E. Cockayne, The Complete Peerage, revised by V. Gibbs (and others), 1910-59, XII, part 1, pp 233-4.
3) List of Portraits at Chevening, 1931, p 9.
4) Public Record Office, Chatham MS23, cited B. Tunstall, William Pitt, 1938, p 430, note 2.
5) 'Notes by Horace Walpole ... on the Exhibitions of The Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists, 1760-1791...', edited H. Gatty, Walpole Society, XXVII, 1939, p 62.
6) G. P. Harding, List of Portraits ... in Various Mansions of the United Kingdom ... MS, c.1804, NPG archives MS, II, p 331.
7) Purchased by International Business Machines Corporation, from a photo it looks like a copy.
8) Sotheby's, 27 July 1967, lot 103, catalogued as ‘Mexican' colonies.
9) J. Farington, The Farington Diary 1788-1821, I, p 1192

Physical descriptionback to top

Grey eyes, light brown eyebrows, aquiline nose, moles over his left eyebrow and on his right cheek and upper lip, right; long grey wig falling to, and behind, his shoulders; earl's parliamentary robe; dark brown background, left, the lower part of a column, right, with cloudy blue sky between; lit from top left.

Conservationback to top

Surface cleaned 1871 and 1895; relined 1902.

Provenanceback to top

Presented, 1868, by Philip, 5th Earl Stanhope, who presumably bought it from C. H. Waters, the purchaser at Foster's, 17 June 1868, lot 82, 'Property of a Gentleman, deceased'; previous history unknown.

Reproductionsback to top

Whole length by E. Fisher, 1779, and three-quarter length by J. K. Sherwin, 1778, lettered corrected from a mask taken by Joseph Wilton.


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.

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