David Hume

Inscriptionback to top

Incised on truncation: DAVID HUME and T.

This portraitback to top

This posthumous image apparently derives from the engraved profile by Cochin of 1764. Tassie had produced a medallion of Hume’s kinsman, the dramatist John Home, in 1791. A second type by Tassie, showing Hume all’antica with short hair and a drape over his bare shoulder, is represented in the Scottish NPG (PG 1196). [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) J. M. Gray, James and William Tassie, a biographical and critical sketch with a catalogue of their portrait medallions of modern personages, 1894, no.199.

Referenceback to top

Gray 1894
J. M. Gray, James and William Tassie, a biographical and critical sketch with a catalogue of their portrait medallions of modern personages, 1894, no.198.

Provenanceback to top

Sotheby’s, Gleneagles, 24 August 1972, lot 108, bought Leggatt for the NPG.

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