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Unknown man, formerly known as William Mason

1 of 4 portraits by John Plott

Unknown man, formerly known as William Mason, by John Plott, circa 1760 -NPG 1393 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Unknown man, formerly known as William Mason

attributed to John Plott
circa 1760
4 1/8 in. x 3 3/8 in. (105 mm x 86 mm) oval
NPG 1393

This portraitback to top

The identification of the sitter as William Mason, first suggested by J. D. Milner in 1904, [1] is undocumented and not wholly convincing. That there are missing portraits of Mason from at least 1760 is indicated by a letter from Thomas Gray (see Mason), but no portrait of him before 1765 survives. An attribution to Plott was suggested by Basil Long in 1928. [2]

Footnotesback to top

1) Note on file, 1 December 1904.
2) ‘The ... Mason reminded me of a miniature by Plott which we have here’ (letter of 15 March 1928 in NPG archives); he could only have been referring to Plott’s Mrs Lydia Butt of 1776.

Referenceback to top

Apollo, XCVIII, 1973, p 372, as Mason.

Walker 1998
R. J. B. Walker, A Catalogue of paintings, drawings, engravings and sculpture in The Palace of Westminster compiled during 1959-77, 4 vols., 1988, [type-script in NPG archive], no.49 (as Mason c.1760).

Physical descriptionback to top

Pale blue eyes, white powdered ‘physical’ wig, wearing a red-brown suit; there is no legible writing on the paper before him.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by the 1st Baron Weardale, 1905.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, 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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