Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan

Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, by John Hoppner, circa 1798 -NPG 1839 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan

by John Hoppner
circa 1798
29 1/2 in. x 24 1/2 in. (749 mm x 622 mm)
NPG 1839

This portraitback to top

The portrait was offered to the Gallery as being by Beechey who is not known to have painted Duncan. The attribution to Hoppner is secured by comparison with a portrait in the Guildhall, a three-quarter-length showing Duncan in full-dress uniform as Admiral of the Blue; a mezzotint of this was made by J. Ward and published in April 1798. Duncan was awarded the Freedom of the City and presented with a Sword of Honour 19 October 1797 after his successful two year blockade of the Dutch Fleet culminating in the victory off Camperdown and the surrender of Admiral de Winter's sword. Hoppner's Guildhall portrait was commissioned then, the NPG version being a variant. Another even sketchier version, without the Ribbon and possibly the preliminary study, is reproduced as frontispiece to the Earl of Camperdown's Admiral Duncan, 1898; this was possibly the portrait lent by Lord Camperdown to the Royal Naval Exhibition, 1891 (441).

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length to left in vice-admiral's undress uniform, Ribbon and Star of St Alexander Nevski of Russia (admitted 5 December 1797), large Naval Gold Medal for Camperdown.

Provenanceback to top

Family possession at Weston House, until bequeathed with the house to Henry A. Warriner by the 3rd Earl of Camperdown in 1918 and given by Warriner in 1919.

Exhibitionsback to top

Possibly Royal Naval Exhibition, Chelsea 1891 (441) lent by the Earl of Camperdown; Yorktown 1978.


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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