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Sir Hector Munro

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Sir Hector Munro, by David Martin, 1785 -NPG 1433 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Sir Hector Munro

attributed to David Martin
1785
49 in. x 38 in. (1245 mm x 965 mm)
NPG 1433

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated on the canon: [D. or C.] W. P./pnxt 1785, and inscribed G.R.III./[B]UXAR./PONTDECHEREY.1

1 The normal contemporary English spelling was Pondicherry (cf. Gentleman's Magazine, XLIX, 1779, p 153).

This portraitback to top

The indistinct signature, as Jacob Simon recently indicated, recalls that of David Martin who, after he had been made the Prince of Wales's Limner in Scotland in 1785, used the suffix P. P. W after his name, [1] and an attribution to Martin is not impossible.

Footnotesback to top

1) See David Martin Bicentenary Exhibition, St Andrews, 1997, nos.18-23, 25-27.

Physical descriptionback to top

Brown eyes, white hair tied with a black ribbon, wearing a major-general’s uniform1 of a red coat with gold trim, blue-tabbed collar and epaulette, a white waistcoat and breeches with black boots; in addition he wears a steel gorget, a purple sash and the ribbon of the Bath. The attendant horseman wears a black hat, a light-grey coat with yellow collar and a yellow waistcoat. In the distance the nearer troops wear blue coats and black hats, the further red coats and black hats.

1 See Maj. N. P. Dawnay, Journal of the Society for Art Historical Research, XXXI, 1953, pp 70, 72.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from the Brook Street Gallery 1906.

Exhibitionsback to top

Cornchest for Scotland, Edinburgh, 1986 (n.n.).


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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