Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip

Inscriptionback to top

Signed, bottom right: A: Hickel./p.: 1793, and inscribed bottom left: Welbore Ellis/Lord Mendip.
Stamped verso: W. Morrill/Liner.

This portraitback to top

Preparatory study for Hickel’s House of Commons, see NPG 745; the sitter moved to the House of Lords in 1794.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue-grey eyes, white powdered wig, wearing a blue coat and waistcoat with brass buttons; within a painted oval.

Provenanceback to top

By descent from the sitter: his heir the 2nd Viscount Clifden of Gowran,¹ to Anne, daughter of the 3rd Viscount (who married 3rd Baron Annaly); her sale, Christie’s, 4 May 1945, lot 141;² Christie’s, 23 July 1954, lot 146; Christie’s, 1 June 1956, lot 102, bought Leggatt for the NPG.

¹ Presumably the portrait of Lord Mendip listed at Gowran Castle, Kilkenny, in 1826 by J. P. Neale (Seats, 2nd series, vol. III).
² As identified by E. K. Waterhouse (letter of 8 December 1956; NPG archive).


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.

View all known portraits for Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip