Charles Lamb

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed in ink on back: Charles Lamb/by Hancock 1798, probably in Cottle's writing.

This portraitback to top

Cottle wrote 'This portrait of Charles Lamb by Hancock was a masterly likeness. Mr Coleridge often used to look at this image of his old friend and school-fellow, and express his warmest approbration of its accuracy'. The drawing was seen by Southey in 1836: 'Cottle has a good likeness of Lamb in chalk, taken by an artist named Robert Hancock about the year 1798. It looks older than Lamb did at that time, but he was old-looking' (C. C. Southey, Life of Southey, 1849-50, VI, p 287).

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length profile to left.

Provenanceback to top

Commissioned by Joseph Cottle; inherited by his niece who sold it at Sotheby's in 1864; Messrs Fawcett & Noseda c.1865; Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Cunningham and his sale Sotheby's 10 May 1876 (548), bought W. W. De la Rue who sold it, together with similar portraits of Coleridge, Southey and Wordsworth, to the NPG in 1877.

Exhibitionsback to top

NPG 1868 (275) lent by Colonel Cunningham; 'Wordsworth Bicentenary', Arts Council, 1970 (23a).

Reproductionsback to top

Stipple vignette by Woodman for Cottle's Early Recollections, 1837, I, p 277 - 'From a Drawing by Hancock (1798) in the Possession of Mr Cottle'.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, 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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