Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed in gold script, top left: Philip Earl of Hardwicke/Viscount Royston appointed/Lord High Chancellor/Of Great Britain/20th Feb: 1736/7.

This portraitback to top

Although the handling is somewhat hard and mechanical, the design of NPG 872 is undoubtedly Dahl's and the treatment reminiscent of his portrait of Pope (q.v. NPG 4132). Another portrait in the same pose, now known only from Faber junior's engraving of 1735, shows the sitter as lord chief justice with a baron's coronet on the table. The earl's coronet in NPG 872 appears to be an alteration by a later hand. Hardwicke received the earldom in 1754; Dahl died 1743. A head and shoulders engraving by Bockman (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1878-83, 10) suggests a further portrait by this artist after Hardwicke became chancellor in 1737.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, mid-brown eyebrows, double chin, pale complexion, full-bottom white wig with centre parting; black brocaded chancellor's gown over black velvet coat, matching waistcoat and knee breeches, elaborate lace cravat and wrist ruffles; red-lined armchair surmounted with earl's coronet, chancellor's purse on a table, right; plain brown background; lit from the left.

Conservationback to top

Retouchings in face; surface cleaned, polished and varnished between 1891 and 1902; pin holes in corners.

Provenanceback to top

Bought, 1891, as by Hudson, with Henry Pelham (q.v. NPG 871) from the Earl of Chichester's collection, Stanmer Park; not apparently recorded before 1888 when noted there by Scharf [1] and, in view of the sitter's connections with Pelham, possibly at Stanmer since painted.

1) Sir George Scharf's Trustees' Sketchbooks, XXXIII, p 39.

Exhibitionsback to top

Presumably 'Royal House of Guelph', 1891 (26), as by Hudson.

Reproductionsback to top

A crude head and shoulders of the type, without coronet, published in the Universal Magazine, 1764, engraver unknown.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, 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.

View all known portraits for Michael Dahl

View all known portraits for Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke