Probably Thomas Greene

This portraitback to top

NPG 972 was accepted in 1894 as a portrait of William Cowper, an identity first rejected by Roberts in 1900. [1] It is a fragment from a larger painting, [2] costume and composition suggesting an historical subject. Dated 1762-63 by Kidson, who also first suggested that the model could be Thomas Greene, on comparison with his portrait by Romney in the Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; [3] there is a pronounced similarity in the clean-cut features.

Footnotesback to top

1) W. Roberts, Athenaeum, 17 February 1900, pp 215-16. NPG 972 was nonetheless illus. as Cowper in, for example, Leisure Hour, April 1900, p 482, and Milford’s first edition of Cowper’s Poems, 1907.
2) Conservator’s report by Anne Broomfield, October 1996; NPG archive.
3) Letter of 7 June 2000; NPG archive.

Referenceback to top

Kidson 2002
A. Kidson, Romney, 2002, p 15.

Russell 1963
N. Russell, ‘Bibliography of William Cowper to 1837’, Oxford Bibliographical Society, NS XII, 1963, p 304.

Ward & Roberts 1904
H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Rainsonné of his Works, II, p 35.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyed, pink complexion, head dress is white with green and brown stripes; wearing a grey-green coat; in the area lower left perhaps white hair, or flax.

Provenanceback to top

Miss Elizabeth Romney;¹ Romney sale, Christie’s, 24 May 1894, lot 174 (Romney, A Head, possibly Cowper),² bought Agnew; presented by Sir George Scharf, 1894,³ as of William Cowper.

¹ See Romney, NPG 959.
² Scharf annotated his sale cat. (NPG archive): ‘tattered, no frame’. Lawrence Romney recalled that the picture ‘had been for years on one of the attics at Whitestock Hall, and was covered with house dirt, and part of the paint had peeled off. When looking over the sketches and other pictures in preparation for the 1894 sale, I thought it might well be meant for a portrait of Cowper, but as I was not certain, I had it catalogued merely as ‘A Head (possibly Cowper)’ - see A. B. Chamberlain, George Romney, 1910, p 177.
³ ’Scharf tried to persuade his Trustees to buy it, but they would not, and so he ‘purchased it himself ... had it done up, and presented it’' (A. B. Chamberlain, George Romney, 1910, p 177).


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.

View all known portraits for Thomas Greene

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