Robert Morrison

This portraitback to top

A note by Morrison's son in the NPG archive reads: 'This masterly sketch, by Chinnery, is considered by all those competent to judge to be the best likeness of Dr Morrison that was ever painted/Robert Morrison July 1908'.
The style is unlike any known Chinnery portrait but Chinnery certainly knew the Morrison family well and indeed made the rather inaccurate drawing of Morrison's gravestone in Macao (Memoirs, I, frontispiece). It has all the appearance of being a sketch for a sculpture and may be a preliminary suggestion for a bas-relief memorial tablet, possibly for his birthplace, Buller's Green, Morpeth.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head in profile to left.

Provenanceback to top

Family descent to his grandson, George Morrison (Registrar of Brighton) and bought from him, through a friend H. Marcus Allen, in 1955.


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 George Chinnery

View all known portraits for Robert Morrison