Joseph Lancaster

This portraitback to top

According to a letter from Sharwood offering the portrait in 1860 it was painted for Sharwood himself by John Hazlitt of Great Russell Street 'shortly before Lancaster went to the United States' in 1818. Sharwood, a London merchant of Charterhouse Square, enclosed a rambling letter from Lancaster in Caracas 1826 ending with the words, ‘I shall never forget Charterhouse Square - I have the picture of it & of thy house from some prints of Ackermanns & I shall never forget thy kindness ...' (letter from Joseph Lancaster in NPG archive). [An old copy of the portrait was with the British and Foreign Schools Society in 1952, now in the BFSS Archive, Brunel University, Uxbridge.]

Physical descriptionback to top

Head and shoulders to right in dark brown coat and waistcoat, white neckcloth; brown wavy hair, grey eyes, rosy complexion; plain brown background.

Provenanceback to top

Painted for Samuel Sharwood and given by him 1860.

Exhibitionsback to top

Possibly RA 1819 (428) as 'Portrait of a gentleman'; Third Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington, 1868 (169).


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.

View all known portraits for Joseph Lancaster