Henry Compton

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed verso, AEtat:80. [the AE in monogram] and, very faintly, 1712;¹ signed, lower right, GK in monogram.

¹ In addition, the contemporary inscription verso uncovered in 2000 appeared to read: Bishop Henry Compton/Henry Compton.

This portraitback to top

The date of 1712 discerned on the verso in 2002, is here taken as the date of the portrait (Compton died on 7 July 1713, aged 81 according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).
Two pen and ink copies by Edward Byng are in the British Museum. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) E. Croft-Murray & P. Hulton, British Museum, Catalogue of British Drawings: XVI and XVII centuries, 1960, p 223 (1897.8.13.6; Byng 5: inside upper cover) and p 259 (1897.8.13.9, 3).

Referenceback to top

Ingamells 1981
J. Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835, catalogue, 1981, p 154.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 79 as c.1700.

Stewart 1983
J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.172 as c.1700.

Provenanceback to top

Dr Crompton, Manchester, 1867;¹ by descent to the Ven. E. H. Hardcastle, Archdeacon of Canterbury (1862-1945), from whom purchased 1938.

¹ Whose daughter married a Hardcastle.

Exhibitionsback to top

Zwei jahrhunderte Britischer malerei, British Council (Prague/Bratislava/Vienna), 1969, no.32; Lyme Park 2000–.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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 Henry Compton

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