John Locke

Inscriptionback to top

Signed centre left: H. Verelst 1689; the reverse painted in contemporary hand: Iohn Locke/1689

This portraitback to top

It was apparently while sitting to Verelst in July 1689 that Locke encountered his portrait by Greenhill (see NPG 3912): ‘For seeing lately my Picture drawn by Greenhill at a painters where I was siting for an other … ,’ [1] but Verelst is not named in Locke’s correspondence. The provenance of NPG 3846 would imply that it was painted for Edward Clarke (cf. Greenhill NPG 3912).

Footnotesback to top

1) Locke Corr., III, no.1165, and see p 661n2.

Referenceback to top

De Beer 1989
E. S. de Beer, ‘Locke’s Portraits’ in The Correspondence of John Locke, VIII, 1989, Appendix I, p 446.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 209.

Provenanceback to top

[Edward Clarke of Chipley Park (see NPG 3912). By descent in the Sanford family at Nynehead Court; purchased through Knoedler’s from W. A. Sanford of Chipley Park, 1953, with the help of the National Art-Collections Fund.

Exhibitionsback to top

William and Mary, Arts Council, 1950, no.45; Art in South Carolina 1670–1970, Gibbes Art Gallery, Charleston SC, 1970; Gawthorpe 1987–.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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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