James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde

This portraitback to top

NPG 78 is a good studio version of the Dahl portrait engraved by S. Gribelin [1] and J. Simon 1714 (in which his expression appears slightly less Churchillian). [2] The original version remains unidentified, but versions include those from Kilkenny (Sotheby’s, 13 July 1994, lot 29), at Deene Park, [3] and in a private collection in 1989; a copy by Mrs Anne Howard is at Kingston Lacy. A bust-length version in a painted oval is at Badminton [4] and a bust-length copy was in a private collection in Sydney in 1972.

Footnotesback to top

1) For which there is an ink outline drawing signed S. G. (for Simon Gribelin) in the Ashmolean Museum (D. B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV, The Earlier British Drawings, 1982, no.136; J. Whiteley, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Catalogue of Drawings, VII, French School, 2000, no.413).
2) J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 115, lettered M. Dahl pinx.1714.
3) Brudenell collection; typescript catalogue, 1941, no.68, as Marshall Schomberg.
4) Exhibited Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits ( ... William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867, no.26; W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, cat. p 33, no.110a.

Referenceback to top

Nisser 1927
W. Nisser, Michael Dahl, cat. p 33, no.110c.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, pp 259-60.

Provenanceback to top

Henry Farrer of Bond Street, from whom purchased 1859.

Exhibitionsback to top

Rande 1702, Museo do Mar de Galicia, Vigo, 2002, no.105.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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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