Henry Grattan

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed indistinctly on the back: P. Turnerelli Fecit Pub^d June (?) 14^th 1812.

This portraitback to top

This is a cast of a marble bust made for Lord Kinnaird, inscribed: Turnerelli fecit 1813, exhibited RA 1813 (917) and still in the family collection at Rossie Priory; a marble copy was at Adare Manor. The original is said to have been made in eleven hours when Turnerelli was on a visit to Grattan at Tinahinch and though Canova said it was the best modern bust he had seen in England (The European Magazine, May 1821, p 389), it never achieved the popularity of Turnerelli's bust of O'Connell of which ten thousand plaster copies were published (Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, 1953, p 402). A later type with toga inscribed: P Turnerelli fecit 1820 is in the Bank of Ireland, Dublin, exhibited RA 1821 (1110); copies were exhibited 'Irish Portraits' NPG 1969 (166) and reproduced in Country Life 28 June and 26 July 1973, pp 1886 and 240, and at Christie's 22 October 1974 (170).

Provenanceback to top

Grattan's daughter; given by the Right Hon William Lecky O. M. (a Trustee) in 1903.


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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