Walter Savage Landor

Inscriptionback to top

Charles Dickens's signature in pencil was at one time on the back.

This portraitback to top

The bust was commissioned by Landor's patron the Manchester cotton magnate Joseph Ablett. Gibson came from Rome to Florence to begin the work: 'Gibson came to me ... and I gave him two sittings, one in the morning, one in the evening. There have been three days, and there will be four more, before he takes the cast in plaster of Paris. I am told that Chantrey is equal to him in busts, but very inferior in genius' (letter to his sister 19 June 1828). Later he wrote again: '... I hear from Rome that the cast of my bust is very much admired. Mr Ablett has given me leave to have one taken for my mother and another for my wife ...' (letter 8 December 1828). One of these arrived in England next year but too late for his mother who died on 8 October (letter to Ellen October 1829); it was probably this one that he gave to Dickens; another he gave to Mrs Frederick West (Malcolm Elwin, Landor: a Replevin, 1958, p 450); a third is possibly that belonging to F. Cavendish-Bentinck bought at Christie's in 1897 and given to Guy Duke, a great-nephew of Landor (offered to the NPG in 1897). A letter to Herbert Fry about a photograph of the cast says 'the plaster of Paris was somewhat too soft, which rendered the nether lip a little too full and pendent' (MS in NPG library).

Provenanceback to top

Given to Charles Dickens and his sale Christie's 9 July 1870 (82) bought T. C. Hotten 22 guineas; Mrs Lynn Linton and her sale at Brougham House, Malvern 27-9 September 1898 (547) catalogued as 'Plaster bust on bracket', bought G. S. Layard (d. 1925) and given by his widow 1926.


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 John Gibson

View all known portraits for Walter Savage Landor