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Henry Grattan

1 of 10 portraits by Francis Wheatley

Henry Grattan, by Francis Wheatley, 1780 -NPG 790 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

Henry Grattan

by Francis Wheatley
1780
11 1/4 in. x 9 5/8 in. (286 mm x 244 mm)
NPG 790

Inscriptionback to top

An old label on the back: Portrait of/Henry Grattan/by/Francis Wheatley, and another with the numeral 30.

This portraitback to top

The portrait is a slightly enlarged copy, head and shoulders only, of the small full-length figure in Wheatley's famous painting at Lotherton Hall, 'The Irish House of Commons in 1780'. This ambitious composition shows the scene inside the House when Grattan opened the debate on 19 April 1780 advocating the repeal of Poyning's Law, the motion being 'That the people of Ireland are of right an independent nation and ought only to be bound by the laws made by the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland'. The debate lasted for fifteen hours until half past six in the morning but the question was adjourned and no mention entered in the Journals of the House. It was of great significance however and Grattan became a national hero from that day. His speech was long remembered as a triumph of oratory, 'The language of Shakespeare or Milton can alone describe its effect' (Charlemont, p 394).
The occasion was known in advance in Dublin and Wheatley was given 'special facilities' for painting the scene in which Grattan, though the hero of the moment, is by no means a dominant figure. The eye is caught primarily by the architectural setting and Pearce's magnificent coffered dome and colonnade animated by the brightly coloured dresses of the ladies and the uniforms of the Dublin Volunteers. Grattan's short slender figure gives little idea of the fiery passion which roused his audience to a pitch of feverish emotion. The uniform apart, Wheatley's interpretation reminds one more of a benevolent curate at a tea party rather than the firebrand whose parliamentary oratory was a byword.

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length, head to left, in uniform of Colonel of the Dublin Independent Volunteers (red coat with narrow green border, one gold epaulette, white waistcoat, white shirt-frill, black neckband); white wig with hair in queue, large dark grey eyes; greenish modelling; variant of column from Irish House of Commons in background.

Provenanceback to top

Doyne Courtenay Bell FSA and given by his executors 1888.

Reproductionsback to top

Mezzotint by Valentine Green 10 September 1782, 'A Real Representative of the People' (Alfred Whitman, Valentine Green, 1902, 115).


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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