John Howe

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed in stone frame, lower left: The Rev^d M^r John Howe.

This portraitback to top

Condition prevents a close assessment of NPG 265 which has been variously described. In 1868 the seller suggested it was by Lely [1] and Scharf then thought it ‘rich and well painted’; [2] it was catalogued as by an unknown artist until 1914 when it was given to Kneller; [3] Piper in 1963 thought it ‘never more than a copy [of Kneller]’, but in 1983 Stewart included it, with a discreet question mark, in his Kneller catalogue.
The most reliable image of Howe. A contemporary version is in Dr Williams’s Library, [4] another, presumed to be of the same type, listed with the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust, London. It was many times engraved, the earliest occasion being in 1702 by R. White. [5] Later plates included that by J. Caldnall [Caldwall], ‘from an original picture in the possession of Mr Collet’ [6] exhibited FSA 1775, no.47, as one of a series for the Nonconformists Memorial.

Footnotesback to top

1) An engraving of the type by J. Cochran had been lettered ‘from the original Picture by Sir P. Lely’.
2) Sir George Scharf’s sketch book 13:69 (18 May 1868).
3) C. H. Collins Baker, Burl. Mag., XVIII, 1910-11, p 290, first published the Kneller attribution.
4) Inscribed upper left: John Howe/1630-1705); exhibited Third Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington, 1868, no.718; illus. R. Horton, John Howe, 1895, front. A copy by T. Athow II in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Sutherland collection, Clarendon III, 454); engr. H. Adlard 1863.
5) Front. to Howe’s Living Temple.
6) Probably a direct descendant of the sitter whose daughter Phillipa m. Matthew Collett (H. Rogers, Life of Howe, 1836, p 570).

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 173.

Stewart 1983
J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no 371.

Conservationback to top

Lined; some abrasion in cravat and face (so that the wart by his right eye, as seen by Scharf¹ and in several engravings, has gone); retouchings in face; much darkened varnish; surface cleaned 1895.

¹ Sir George Scharf’s Trustees’ sketch books 13:69 (13 May 1868).

Provenanceback to top

John R. Smith,¹ from whom purchased 1868.

¹ Who told Scharf that, with a portrait of Isaac Watts (now NPG 264), NPG 265 had been bequeathed to his father, Edward Smith, through three previous legatees direct from Sir Thomas Abney (1640-1722, the nonconformist Lord Mayor of London) of Stoke Newington, and that he had documents proving its existence as far back as 1739 (letter of 7 May 1868, filed under NPG 264).


This extended catalogue entry is by John Ingamells, one of a limited number of entries drafted in 2010 for the incomplete catalogue, Early Stuart Portraits 1625-1685, and is as written 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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