John Dormer

Inscriptionback to top

Signed, lower left: GK (monogram).

This portraitback to top

The Kit-Cat Club portrait. The identity was previously confused with that of other members of the Dormer family. [1] The face mask reverses that in the three-quarter-length at Rousham, and the casual gown contrasts with that buttoned coat.
A drawing of this type by Edward Byng is in the British Museum. [2]

Footnotesback to top

1) E.g. H. Bromley, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, 1793, II, p 286 as Gen. John Dormer (d. 1741), followed by J. Caulfield ed., Memoirs of the Celebrated Persons Comprising the Kit-Cat Club, 1821, p 209.
2) E. Croft-Murray & P. Hulton, British Museum, Catalogue of British Drawings: XVI and XVII centuries, 1960, p 240 (1897.8.13.7; Byng 6:f.42v).

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 111 as c.1710.

Stewart 1983
J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.231 as c.1705.

Exhibitionsback to top

Beningbrough 1978–.

Reproductionsback to top

J. Faber II 1733 (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 208/37).


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 John Dormer

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