Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham

This portraitback to top

A copy from the whole-length portrait by Reynolds now at St Osyth’s Priory, painted in 1766-68 and first engraved by Edward Fisher in 1774. [1] Full-length replicas are in the Royal Collection painted in 1781-82, [2] and the York Mansion House painted in 1781-83; [3] a three-quarter length studio version, dating from 1781-83, is at Dalmeny. [4]
Many copies are recorded; whole lengths by Katherine Read 1786 (Jockey Club, Newmarket) and Thomas Phillips 1805 (Doncaster Corporation); [5] half lengths include a pastel attributed to Francis Cotes at Rockingham Castle; [6] in miniature by William Birch in the Gilbert collection dated 1786, [7] and attributed to Samuel Shelley, sold Phillips, 6 July 1987, lot 172.

Footnotesback to top

1) D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1858.
2) Sir Oliver Millar, The Later Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, I, 1969, no.1045; D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1859.
3) D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1860.
4) Ibid., no.1861.
5) Exhibited Leeds 1868(3170); illus. E. Hailstone, Portraits of Workshire worthies, selected from the National Exhibition of works of art at Leeds, 1869, II, no.151.
6) Others include those at Alnwick and sold Sotheby’s, 9 June 1971, lot 159, and 11 June 1996, lot 450; Phillips, 20 November 1990, lot 148, and Christie’s, 7 April 1993, lot 105.
7) Illus. S. Coffin & B. Hofstetter, The Gilbert Collection, Portrait Miniatures in Enamel, 2000, no.2; others sold Sotheby’s, 1 December 1980, lot 53 dated 1785, and Sotheby’s, 22 September 1992, lot 562.

Referenceback to top

Mannings 2000
D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds, I, 2000, no.1860a.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue-grey eyes, lightly-powdered toupée wig, his own dark brown hair hanging behind; wearing the Garter robe; within a painted oval and sometime framed as an oval.

Provenanceback to top

‘Direct from the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds to the late Peregrine Wentworth, for whom it was painted; bequeathed to Francis Maude [c.1768-1842] of Hatfield Hall, near Wakefield’;¹ his [invalid] son the Rev Ralph Maude, by whom presented 1875.

¹ Letter from Ferguson Branson (acting for the Rev Ralph Maude), 19 March 1875 (NPG archive).

Exhibitionsback to top

House of Lords 1972-75; The Dye is now Cast, NPG Washington, 1975 (155); Bicentennial Center Opening, Yorktown, Va., 1976.


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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