James Northcote

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed: Northcote/Visitor/at the Royal Academy/Somerset House; a drawing of a Roman soldier on verso.

This portraitback to top

Northcote stands between the RA desks in Somerset House before the removal to Trafalgar Square in 1837. He is elegantly dressed but even so somewhat recalls Leslie's description, 'his diminutive figure was enveloped in a chintz dressing-gown, below which his trowsers, which looked as if made for a much taller man, hung in loose folds over an immense pair of shoes into which his legs seemed to have shrunk down' (Recollections, p 68). Shepheard, mainly a romantic landscape artist, exhibited RA 1811-42.

Provenanceback to top

Given by Iolo Williams 1961.


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 James Northcote