Sir William Gell

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and inscribed along edge of lapel: Drawn by Cornelius Varley in Pt Graphic Telescope 1816 and on verso: Sir W^m Gell with P G Teles C. Varley.

This portraitback to top

Varley invented and patented his Graphic Telescope in 1811. It was a development of earlier devices and consisted of a simple arrangement of lenses projecting an image on to a flat surface so that it could be easily traced. A portrait of Miss Hayes sold at Christie's 20 October 1970 (1) was inscribed: Nov. 25 1811 - the first Portrait Drawn in the Patent Graphic Telescope invented by C. Varley and thus provides a terminus a quo for all subsequent Graphic Telescope drawings.
A number of portraits by Cornelius's brother, John Varley, are in the Dawson Collection, V & A Museum (Walpole Society Journal, XXI, 1922-3, pp 102-4), and Chantrey used an adaptation of the telescope called a 'camera lucida'. Gell mentions using a camera lucida himself for his views of Rome and Naples sent home in his letters to the Society of Dilettanti (Edith Clay, Sir William Gell in Italy, 1976, p 87).

Provenanceback to top

Bought from Spink and Son Ltd, 1976.

Exhibitionsback to top

Spink's annual 'English Watercolour Drawings', 1976 (109).


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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