Samuel Rogers

Inscriptionback to top

Incised on the back of the socle: Published by Dantan (two illegible words) London.

This portraitback to top

Dantan visited London in 1833 and according to the Court Journal of 12 October 'the celebrated French caricaturist has just returned to Paris from London, having enriched his portfolio with sketches of the Earl of S—, Count d'O—y, Ro—rs the poet and various other remarkable personages whose portraits are just now attracting crowds to the windows of Susse in the Passage des Panoramas' (Janet Seligman, Figures of Fun, 1957, pp 77-8). Plaster caricatures cost four or five francs, cross-channel statuettes (William IV, Brougham, Eldon, Sefton) 15 francs, and bronze copies were more expensive. They were published in editions of about 25 and sold freely, though Rogers himself held his own bust in especial horror perhaps because it is hardly a caricature at all (The Maclise Portrait Gallery, 1873, p 18).
A bronze version of Rogers was submitted to the NPG for inspection in 1915 (Description of Portraits 13) and a plaster version offered and refused in 1933.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head and shoulders with arms folded on a leather-bound volume of The Pleasures of Memory, holding a quill and roll of paper; double-breasted coat with deep collar, waistcoat, bow-tie.

Provenanceback to top

Probably Sir Edmund Gosse (it was reproduced in Gosse's History of English Literature, 1903, IV, p 152, owner unstated), then given to the NPG by his son Dr Philip Gosse in 1953.

Exhibitionsback to top

Probably 1833 at Dantan's lodgings in 18 Leicester Square where his 'victims' and their friends were permitted to visit; 'Vanity Fair', NPG, 1976 (1).


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 Samuel Rogers