Robert Raikes

This portraitback to top

Presumably the ‘half-length’ portrait of ‘Mr Raikes’ for which Thomas Raikes paid Romney 50 gn. - £20 in March 1785, the balance in January 1788. The portrait was sent to him in London in April 1788, returned to Romney in March 1794, and then sent to Gloucester. [1] Thomas Raikes (d. 1813), a director of the Bank of England, was the sitter’s brother, Gloucester the sitter’s home.
A half-length version was made for the Dean of Lincoln, Dr Kaye, [2] and another belonged to the sitter’s granddaughter, Lady Thompson, in 1910. [3] A whole-length version, incorporating a King Charles spaniel, belonged to Mrs Holloway at Stroud in 1900. [4]

Footnotesback to top

1) H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Rainsonné of his Works, 1904, II, p 128. Sittings to Romney are impossible to determine: there is no sitter book for 1785, and there were three Raikes sitting to Romney 1785-92 (cf. H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Rainsonné of his Works, 1904, II, p 129).
2) H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Rainsonné of his Works, 1904, II, p 128; presumably sent before 1789 when Dr Kaye became Sir Richard Kaye.
3) Raikes’s eldest daughter, Ann, married 1799 Sir Thomas Boulden Thompson, 1st Bt; the owner was presumably Gertrude, Lady Thompson (d. 1921), wife of the 2nd Bt. The portrait was seen, but not sold, at Christie’s, 8 July 1910 (note in NPG archive).
4) H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Rainsonné of his Works, 1904, II, p 128; illus. J. H. Harris, Robert Raikes, 1899, front.

Referenceback to top

Ward & Roberts 1904
H. Ward & W. Roberts, Romney, A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Rainsonné of his Works, II, p 128.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, white hair, wearing a dark blue coat, yellow waistcoat, grey breeches and white stockings; he sits in a red chair, in his right hand a paper inscribed Sunday Schools; a red curtain above him and on the table, covered by a green cloth, are books, an inkstand, papers and a silver stamp.

Provenanceback to top

By descent to Gen. Robert Napier Raikes (d. 1909); purchased from his heirs 1909 (as by Beechey).

Reproductionsback to top

W. Woolnoth 1821, 1828, 1830 , etc. (half length); anon. (life-size half-length lithograph).


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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