Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed on the back in ink probably by Cottle: S. T. Coleridge/by Hancock 1796.

This portraitback to top

Cottle wrote in his Early Recollections, 'This portrait of Mr Coleridge was taken by Mr Robert Hancock in crayons (afterwards fastened and varnished so as to have all the stability of oils). The likeness was much admired at the time, and has an additional interest from having been drawn when Mr C's spirits were in a state of depression on account of the failure of his "Watchman". The dress is precisely that which Mr Coleridge wore when he preached his first sermon, in Mr Jardine's chapel, at Bath' (Joseph Cottle, Early Recollections Chiefly Relating to the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Bristol, 1837, xxxi). The drawing of Coleridge was one of a group with Southey, Wordsworth and Lamb, 'taken in the years when each of the writers published his first volume of Poems; and (as the only fair criticism) the fidelity of the copies to the originals, in those periods, was universally admitted' (ibid. xxxiii). Crabb Robinson saw them in Cottle's house in Bristol and wrote his impressions to Wordsworth in September 1836. Coleridge described himself at this time in a letter to John Thelwall, November 1796: 'my face, unless when animated by eloquence, expresses great sloth, and great, indeed almost idiotic good-nature. 'Tis a mere carcass of a face, fat, flabby and expressive chiefly of inexpression'.
Hancock is known for his brilliant decoration of Worcester, Battersea and Bow porcelain, including portraits of Frederick the Great, Wolfe, Boscawen, Granby and George III, but by the 1790s whilst living in Bristol, his drawings of Lamb and the Lake poets were probably intended only for engravings.

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length seated to left aged 23, lips slightly parted showing teeth, face touched with pink watercolour, remainder in greyish-brown pencil and wash with plain stippled background.

Provenanceback to top

Commissioned by Joseph Cottle and inherited by his niece who sold it at Sotheby's in 1864; Messrs Fawcett & Noseda c.1865; Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Cunningham and his sale Sotheby's 10 May 1876 (548) bought W. W. De la Rue who sold it to the NPG in 1877 (Sotheby's printed catalogue entry on the back).

Exhibitionsback to top

Third Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington, 1868 (275) lent by Colonel Cunningham; Arts Council Wordsworth Bicentenary, Kendal and Southampton 1970 (23B); 'Samuel Taylor Coleridge', King's Library, British Museum 1972 (80).

Reproductionsback to top

Stipple (bust only) by Woodman for Cottle's Early Recollections, 1837, II, frontispiece - 'From a Drawing by Hancock (1796) in the Possession of Mr Cottle'.


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.

View all known portraits for Samuel Taylor Coleridge