Warren Hastings

This portraitback to top

Kettle painted Hastings twice in Calcutta. The more substantial portrait, a seated whole length dated 1769-72 by Milner, belongs to the Asiatic Society Museum, Calcutta; [1] a near-contemporary half-length copy by Thomas Palmer is in the East India Club, London. [2] NPG 81 uses a closely comparable head and, although dated 1772-76 by Milner, could be contemporary with the whole length; a three-quarter length version descended from John Stewart, Judge Advocate of Bengal 1773-76, also belongs to the East India Club. [3]

Footnotesback to top

1) Illus. M. Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825,1979, p 90.
2) Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 2, no.4.
3) Ibid., p 2, no.3.

Referenceback to top

Knapp 1951
Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, [1951] type-script NPG [a revision of his catalogue in A. M. Davies, Warren Hasings, 1935, p 2, no.2.

Milner 1927
J. D. Milner, ‘Tilly Kettle’, Wal. Soc., XV, 1927, pp 71-72, 92-93.

Physical descriptionback to top

Grey eyes, fair hair, wearing a reddish-brown suit.

Provenanceback to top

Given by the sitter to Sir Richard Sullivan (d. 1806), 1st Bt, of Ember Court, Thames Ditton;¹ his son Sir Charles Sullivan, 3rd Bt; sold Christie’s, 18 June 1859, lot 29 as Romney, purchased.

¹ ‘... given to my father by Warren Hastings himself’ (Sir Charles Sullivan to Scharf, 9 June 1858; NPG archive); his father was in India with Hastings from 1768 to c.1782.

Exhibitionsback to top

Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, 1861 (Ancient Masters 490); Second special exhibition of National Portraits (William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867 (688); Hastings, Westminster School, 1932 (4); British in India, Brighton, 1973 (B20).

Reproductionsback to top

W. Angus 1782 (from a painting belonging to Mrs Maitland; European Mag.)


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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 Warren Hastings