Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel

This portraitback to top

Circumstantial evidence shows that NPG 1466 was painted in France in 1690-91. Tyrconnell visited James’s exiled court at St Germain between September 1690 and January 1691 and NPG 1466 shows him wearing the Garter with which James nominally invested him in November 1690. [1] As Piper emphasised, the Garter is not accurately portrayed: the buckle is on top of the garter (instead of the bottom) and the dark blue of the ribbon is (now) nearer the pale blue of the Saint-Esprit.
There has been no general agreement as to which French artist painted this portrait, [2] but in 1992 Dominique Brême and Malcolm Rogers both favoured François de Troy, [3] who remains the likeliest candidate. A slightly extended version (130 x 103 cm) is in the National Gallery of Ireland (1138), with two others (4164 and 4167) acquired from Malahide Castle; [4] another version was listed at Rudding Park. [5] It is not established which, if any, of these portraits is original.

Footnotesback to top

1) See E. T. Corp, La cour des Stuarts à Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1992, p 190.
2) A. S. Belle and Hyacinthe Rigaud had also been suggested.
3) On the occasion of the exhibition La Cour des Stuarts à Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the curator Edward Corp wrote to Malcolm Rogers (2 March) saying Brême felt that NPG 1466 was by, or after, François de Troy; Rogers replied (16 March) he had already reached the same conclusion (letters in NPG archive).
4) Respectively 127 x 102 cm, Malahide Castle sale, 15 June 1976, lot 475, and 118 x 91 cm, lot 478, inscribed bottom left: Lord Tyrconnell/Lord Lieut./of Ireland/for James 2 (illus. Kings in Conflict, 1990, p 75, no.66). For the three Dublin portraits see Summary Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings, National Gallery of Ireland, 1981, pp 45, 139, 251.
5) 113 x 90 cm; inscribed bottom left: Richard/Talbot/Duke of/Tyrconnel. Sir Everard Radcliffe’s family was connected with the Talbot family through a 19th-century marriage.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 354.

Provenanceback to top

Charles, 18th Baron Trimlestown [I] (1861-1937);¹ his sale, Christie’s, 2 February 1907, lot 36 unattributed, bought Leggatt for the NPG.

¹ Piper noted the possible descent through Mary, wife of the 3rd Viscount Kingland and 3rd daughter and co-heiress of George Hamilton, 1st husband of Frances Jenyns, later Duchess of Tyrconnell, see NPG 5095; the Kingland estates passed to Trimlestown in 1800.

Exhibitionsback to top

Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982–88; Glorious Revolution, National Army Museum, 1988, no.12; La Cour des Stuarts à Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint Germain-en-Laye, 1992, no.251.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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 Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel