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John Hervey, Baron Hervey of Ickworth

4 of 57 portraits by Jean Baptiste van Loo

John Hervey, Baron Hervey of Ickworth, by Jean Baptiste van Loo, circa 1740-1741 -NPG 167 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue

John Hervey, Baron Hervey of Ickworth

studio of Jean Baptiste van Loo
circa 1740-1741
80 1/4 in. x 61 1/4 in. (2032 mm x 1556 mm)
NPG 167

This portraitback to top

NPG 167 is a version of a portrait painted by 1741 by Vanloo, showing the sitter with the purse of lord privy seal, an office he held 1740-42. Walpole noted, 1762, that in the portrait of Lady Ilchester as a sea nymph, at Redlynch, the head was by Vanloo and 'the rest by Eckardt, his Scholar'. [1] If, by implication, part of NPG 167 is also by Eccardt, his work is here indistinguishable from his master's. A better whole length, with a table on the left, remains at Ickworth (88), as also (90) an oval head and shoulders. A three-quarter length, formerly at Ickworth where labelled 'Hudson', was at the Treasury, Ministry of Public Building and Works, 1954, and another was with Stoner and Evans in 1927; a third, lent by F. Hanbury Williams to the Second Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington, 1867 (257), probably the portrait with A. W. Newton, USA, in 1931, shows the ground in the quarterings of the royal arms uncoloured and may derive from Faber's engraving.

Footnotesback to top

1) 'Horace Walpole's Journals of Visits to Country Seats & etc', edited P. Toynbee, Walpole Society, XVI, 1928, p 44.

Physical descriptionback to top

Light grey eyebrows, grey-blue eyes, long nose, cleft chin, pale complexion, white wig with centre parting, to shoulders; blue coat lined with white fur, white shirt and ruffles, gold-coloured waistcoat, black breeches and shoes, white hose; purse of the privy seal on his right knee; on the table, to his left, a plan for a formal garden and on it an inkpot and two books with gold lettering on the red panels: SPEED JOHN/THE/HISTORY and PLAT. H/THE/JEWEL, red-backed chair, carpeted floor; masonry background with dark green curtain draped diagonally behind a column.

Conservationback to top

Discoloured varnish; some retouchings now visible in the skirt of the coat; a small loss about 42 in. up the right-hand margin; surface cleaned and varnished 1898.

Provenanceback to top

Given, 1863, by the Marquess of Bristol.

Reproductionsback to top

The three-quarter type mezzotinted by J. Faber junior 1741 (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 1878-83, 188).


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.

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