John Hampden the Younger

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed, lower left: John Hamden the/Younger/G. Kneller fecit.

This portraitback to top

The only known portrait of Hampden, the identity resting entirely on the old (but not contemporary) inscription which includes a facsimile Kneller signature [1].

Footnotesback to top

1) The stretcher bears a 19th-century ink inscription: supposed the unfortunate Mr John Hampden, with later addition: by Kneller 16 [.]3.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 157.

Provenanceback to top

The 9th Earl of Buckinghamshire (1901-83), Hampden House; sale, 1st day, 17 April 1939, possibly lot 22 or 23, bought Einstein,¹ from whom purchased 1939.

¹ As stated by Arthur Einstein (letter of 30 July 1950 on file); not securely identifiable in the Hampden House sale catalogue, where nearly every portrait was listed with size as an unknown sitter; lot 22 was ‘man in black coat and white ruff’, lot 23 ‘man in black coat and white ruffle’.


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.