William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed, upper left: Gulielmus Comes Cowper/magni sigilli Angliae Custos/Ultimus/Britanniae primus et/Bis Cancellarius, and, lower left: WM. EARL COWPER/1717, signed, centre right: GKneller Bart./1722.

This portraitback to top

Cowper wears an earl’s coronation robes and NPG 1228 is the only known portrait of him after his elevation in 1718. The face mask greatly resembles that of Kneller’s earlier 1710 portrait; Stewart described NPG 1228 as ‘a superb example of Kneller’s latest style’. [1]
A 20th-century copy by A. E. Dyer is recorded in Hertford Assembly Hall.

Footnotesback to top

1) J. D. Stewart, Sir Godfrey Kneller, NPG, exhibition catalogue, 1971 p 59.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 87 as probably mainly studio work.

Stewart 1983
J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.197.

Provenanceback to top

Bequeathed to the 6th Earl Cowper by Henry Cowper, a distant cousin, or by Tewin Water, his guardian;¹ presented by Francis, 7th Earl Cowper,² 1899.

¹ Note on file, without source.
² 1834-1905, Trustee of the NPG 1869-74. He told Cust he wished to present the portrait since he ‘already [had] three portraits of him’.

Exhibitionsback to top

Sir Godfrey Kneller, NPG, 1971, no.74; Royal Courts of Justice 1992–.


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.

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