Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman

This portraitback to top

The portrait is listed without provenance in E. S. Bain's Catalogue of Portraits in Serjeants' Inn, 1868, p 4. It was probably commissioned for the Inn on his appointment as Chief Justice of the King's Bench in November 1832. It was exhibited RA 1833 (with the inaccurate title of Lord Chief Justice of England), hung either in the Law Courts at Westminster or in Serjeants' Inn Chancery Lane, and at the dissolution of the Inn in 1876 it was presented to the NPG by the Hon Society of Judges and Serjeants-at-Law who were responsible for winding up the Inn's affairs. A three-quarter-length version is in a private collection Sussex.

Physical descriptionback to top

Whole-length standing in Lord Chief Justice's robes, without wig, small grey eyes, close-shaven face, pale complexion; chain of SS, ermine cloak, black sash, black shoes with silver buckles, books and papers on a round pedestal table to left; he holds a volume of The Laws of England; a statue of Justice shielding her eyes and holding scales in an architectural niche to right.

Provenanceback to top

Serjeants' Inn and given to the NPG by the Society of Judges and Serjeants-at-Law in 1877.

Exhibitionsback to top

RA 1833 (76) or RA 1840 (75); on loan to the Royal Courts of Justice since 1958.


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.

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