1 OF 2 
Unknown man, formerly known as Humphry Repton
1 of 2 portraits of Humphry Repton
- Overview
- Extended catalogue entry
Regency Portraits Catalogue
Unknown man, formerly known as Humphry Repton
by Samuel Shelley
circa 1800
5 1/8 in. x 4 1/4 in. (130 mm x 108 mm)
NPG 4247
Inscriptionback to top
Inscribed at top right in ink: 444 and along lower edge in pencil: Repton/ and below this an illegible line possibly: From a profile taken together with another sketch; and on verso, two pencil heads inscribed: by S. Shelley.
Provenanceback to top
Knight Frank & Rutley 30 August 1961 (25) among 6 drawings by Samuel Shelley, bought Leggatt for the NPG. The pencilled name Repton may be misleading. The only authentic portraits of Humphry Repton (landscape gardener 1752-1818) recorded in the NPG archive are an unlocated bust exhibited by George Garrard RA 1810 (720) and 2 miniatures still in the Repton family possession (both reproduced Dorothy Stroud, Humphry Repton, 1962, p 17. One of these miniatures is well known from stipple engravings by W. Holl (1802) and H. B. Hall (1839) which show a sitter with a round head and aquiline nose. The other, by a considerable stretch of the imagination, could conceivably have developed from NPG 4247, though both head and nose are still the wrong shape. The identification with Humphry Repton has never officially been admitted in the NPG catalogues.
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.