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Sir Walter Scott, 1st Bt

5 of 47 portraits of Sir Walter Scott, 1st Bt

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Bt, by John Graham Gilbert, 1829 -NPG 240 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Bt

replica by John Graham Gilbert
1829
43 in. x 33 in. (1092 mm x 838 mm)
NPG 240

This portraitback to top

The portrait is a replica, kept in the artist's studio, of an original with book and President's gold chain painted in 1829 for the Royal Society of Edinburgh of which Scott became President in 1820. This is first mentioned briefly in the Journal of Sir Walter Scott, 15 January 1829 and is still in the Society's collection. The NPG version is accompanied by a letter from Sir Francis Grant (a Trustee) to Scharf 21 September 1867: 'I saw a great deal of Sir Walter at the period of his life when that picture was painted - I was intimately acquainted with his features and expression and in my opinion it is the most faithful likeness of him that I have ever seen -'; Grant continues with an account of Scott describing his early ambitions to become an artist but 'lacked the genius to excel and therefore had the good sense and discretion to give it up entirely' (letter in NPG archive). Lockhart describes it as 'not destitute of merit' but inferior to Gilbert's portrait of Anne Scott at Abbotsford (J. G. Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, X, p 236).

Physical descriptionback to top

Three-quarter-length seated in dark suit, white shirt and bow-tie; white hair with pentimenti around outline of head, pale grey eyes, fresh complexion, serious expression; crimson upholstered armchair, plain brown background.

Provenanceback to top

The artist and given by his widow 1867.

Exhibitionsback to top

Lent to the Scottish NPG 1900; centenary Edinburgh 1932 (29); loan to the House of Commons since 1977.

Reproductionsback to top

Stipples by Woolnoth for Jerdan's National Portrait Gallery, 1831 and by Thomson published Fisher & Co 1834, both from the original in the Royal Society of Edinburgh.


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.

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