Sir Thomas Picton

This portraitback to top

Picton returned from the ill-fated Walcheren expedition in the autumn of 1809 and retired immediately to Bath to convalesce from malaria and depression. He left for the Peninsula early in 1810 and remained there until after the Battle of Badajoz in 1812. Shee's portrait therefore was probably painted in the winter of 1809-10 and possibly in London in December or January, Picton usually staying in an hotel. He was promoted Lieutenant-General just before Ciudad Rodrigo in September 1811 and awarded his KB on 1 February 1813. Shee's portrait shows him as Major-General (the old style epaulettes were replaced by an army order of 14 December 1811) with the Ribbon and Star painted in later probably after the GCB award of 2 January 1815. He was killed at Waterloo in June.
The head was used by Shee for the posthumous whole-length exhibited RA 1816 (6) which caused jealousy between Shee and Beechey for being skyed over the door into the Exhibition Room (Diary of Joseph Farington, 10 April 1816 and 12 January 1817). The head, by this time bequeathed by Picton to his friend and correspondent Lewis Flanagan, was borrowed again by Shee in 1836 for the three-quarter-length in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle (letter from Shee to Flanagan 13 May 1836 making excuses for not having returned it earlier and offering to repair it, NPG archive).

Physical descriptionback to top

Head and shoulders in major-general's uniform overpainted with Ribbon and Star of GCB; grey (powdered) hair, dark eyebrows, brown eyes, ruddy complexion; plain dark background.

Provenanceback to top

Bequeathed by Picton to his solicitor, Lewis Flanagan, who bequeathed it to - Elmore, whose son Alfred Elmore sold it to the NPG 1861.

Reproductionsback to top

(1) Stipple by H. R. Cook from a miniature copy by William Haines, in major-general's uniform without Orders, published 1 December 1812 in Military Panorama and again September 1815 in Gifford's History of the War. (2) Stipple published by J. & J. Cundee 1813. (3) Stipple by T. Blood published in The European Magazine, 1 September 1815. (4) Stipple by Cooper with Star of Bath added, published Cadell & Davies, Contemporary Portraits, 1 March 1815 and later by H. Cook with Beechey's name as artist. (5) Mezzotint by J. C. Easling with uniform altered to lieutenant-general's, Ribbon and Star of Bath, Star of Portuguese Tower and Sword, Peninsula Cross with 3 campaign clasps, published 1 April 1815. (6) Mezzotint by Charles Turner, whole-length in similar uniform and Orders but with drawn sword in right hand and storming of Badajoz in background, published 20 October 1818 (Alfred Whitman, Charles Turner, 1907, 429); three-quarter-length stipple by T. A. Dean was used as frontispiece to Robinson's Memoirs of … Picton, 1836, vol.I, and reduced versions were issued later.


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 Sir Thomas Picton

View all known portraits for Sir Martin Archer Shee