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William Cowper

56 of 3516 portraits matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Pencil'

William Cowper, by William Harvey; Lemuel Francis Abbott, circa 1835, based on a work of 1792 -NPG 806 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

William Cowper

by William Harvey, after Lemuel Francis Abbott
circa 1835, based on a work of 1792
10 3/8 in. x 6 7/8 in. (263 mm x 175 mm)
NPG 806

Inscriptionback to top

Faded ink inscription along the bottom edge WILLIAM COWPER ESQ TAKEN FROM LIFE W HARVEY; a hole by his right shoulder, some staining lower right.

This portraitback to top

Harvey drew the vignettes and portraits for Robert Southey’s Life and Works of William Cowper, published in fifteen volumes 1835-37. NPG 806 is a copy, presumably from the engraving by W. C. Edwards, after the Abbott portrait NPG 2783; the blue tint of the coat disagrees with the green of the original. It was not engraved for the Life and Works, Romney’s head being preferred, but the faded inscription on NPG 806 matches the typeface used for the inscriptions on the portraits in those volumes. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) Cf. N. Russell, 'Bibliography of William Cowper to 1837', Oxford Bibliographical Society, NS, XII, 1963, f.p.245.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue coat, yellow waistcoat and breeches; the head is also tinted, but the hands and desk are left as pencil outlines.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by the Rev W. J. Loftie 1888.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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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