Warren Hastings

This portraitback to top

Sittings to Abbott are recorded in Hastings’s Diary on 10 August, 7 October and 15 December 1796 (the last two coinciding with sittings to Thomas Banks) and ‘it is clear that upon several occasions the painter was at work on his picture at the same time as the sculptor on his bust’. [1] The original portrait, for which Hastings paid 15 guineas, [2] was given to David Anderson, [3] to whom Hastings wrote on 13 January 1797:

‘To S^r Joshua Reynolds I more than once mentioned my desire of sitting to him at a very early period. What prevented it then I do not recollect but well remember the subsequent causes; his long illness, loss of sight and death. After that event I could meet with no artist with whose skill I was satisfied, till accident brought me acquainted with Mr Abbott, and after many patient sittings in the course of two years, if not more, and much change in the original similitude, I at length obtained from him one which, whether well executed or not, has appeared to me to bear a stronger resemblance of me than any that I have yet seen ... It was sent off last Friday (the 6th, I believe) by the Edinburgh waggon.'
Anderson told Hastings on 3 February: ‘I am delighted with it beyond expression ... it is the strongest resemblance I ever saw’. Hastings gave further sittings to Abbott for a portrait for his wife, identified as NPG 1845. [4] Following all the vituperation of his public trial which had ended in 1795, Abbott’s benign portrait prompted Hastings to compose some ironic verse, including the lines

'And such in all his attributes array’d
Behold him here on Abbot’s canvas spread!
‘Tis true, to vulgar sense they lie conceal’d,
To Burke, and men like Burke, alone reveal’d.' [5]
Hastings distributed several copies of the portrait. In 1928 one originally given to his step-son, Sir Charles Imhoff, was with Mrs E. F. A. Wansborough (née Woodman-Hastings); others then belonged to the descendants of Sir Elijah Impey, Nathaniel Halhed, and of Hastings’s ward, Sir John D’Oyly. [6] Copies were also painted for William Cowper (by 1797) and Edward Baber, Bengal colleagues. [7] Another in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, apparently descended from Sir Thomas Plumer, one of the counsel for Hastings’s defence at his impeachment. [8]
A fine version, possibly that descended from Elijah Impey, was sold Christie’s, 15 April 1994, lot 24, and another on 20 December 1957, lot 58 as Lawrence. Reduced versions were with Ulric Blyth in 1932 as Raeburn [9] and sold Christie’s New York, 16 April 1994, lot 2. [10] Two miniature copies were made by Henry Bone: one for ‘Mr Minhoff’ (presumably Sir Charles Imhoff), [11] the other dated 1800; [12] one of these was presumably the Warren Hastings miniature exhibited by ‘H. Berne’, RA 1800 (896). A miniature version in the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.7.1915), showing a glimpse of a chair at the extreme left, is attributed to Ozias Humphry.

Footnotesback to top

1) C. F. Bell, Annals of Thomas Banks, 1938, p 110 (citing the Hastings Diaries, British Library, Add. MS 39883).
2) Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 7, no.18.
3) Illus. A. M. Davies, Warren Hastings, 1935, front. This account and the quotations are taken from Evan Cotton, Bengal Past & Present, XLIV, II, 1932-33, pp 113-19.
4) Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 7, nos.18, 19, quoting the Hastings Diary, ‘after the portrait for Anderson was finished he gave further sittings for a portrait intended for Mrs Hastings’.
5) Quoted in extenso in A. M. Davies, Warren Hastings, 1935, pp 565-66.
6) Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, pp 8-10, respectively nos.21, 20, 22 and 28. The D’Oyly portrait sold Christie’s, 28 June 1929, lot 48, as Beechey, and Sotheby’s, 18 December 1946, lot 29 as H. J. Simpson after Beechey.
7) See principally Evan Cotton. See Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 22, no.1.
8) Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 8, no.23. Christie’s, 11 July 1885, lot 71, as Lawrence, and called Hoppner in 1909.
9) Illus. Country Life, LXXII, 1932, p 661; Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 11, no.32.
10) Probably the ‘small head’ attributed to John Simpson listed by Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 10, no.29, as in the possession of Edward Impey. Knapp listed another version of the Abbott type (p 10, no.27) belonging to Sir George Sutherland.
11) Presumably Sir Arthur Knapp, A Catalogue of the known Portraits of Warren Hastings, 1951, p 15, no.5, as Henry Bone 1799 in the collection of Miss A. M. Woodman-Hastings; the preparatory drawing in the NPG Bone albums (R. Walker, 'Henry Bone's Pencil Drawings in the National Portrait Gallery', Wal. Soc., LXI, 1999, no.248).
12) Preparatory drawing dated 1800 in the NPG Bone albums (R. Walker, 'Henry Bone's Pencil Drawings in the National Portrait Gallery', Wal. Soc., LXI, 1999, no.247).

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 7, no.19].

Physical descriptionback to top

White hair, grey-blue eyes, dark-blue coat.

Provenanceback to top

Mrs Warren Hastings; by descent to her great-niece, Miss Marian Winter, by whom bequeathed 1919.

Exhibitionsback to top

Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta, 1919-87; British High Commission, New Delhi, 1987-.

Reproductionsback to top

H. Robinson 1832 (as Reynolds).


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