Probably George Vancouver

This portraitback to top

Acquired as an unattributed portrait, NPG 503 was tentatively attributed to L. F. Abbott in 1881; listed as by an unknown painter in 1920, but reattributed to Abbott 1932-81; in 1981 it reverted to anonymity and the sitter’s identity was also doubted. [1] An attribution to Abbott is untenable, but the identity of Vancouver is possibly correct.
There is no authenticated portrait of Vancouver, only a caricature by James Gillray, showing the back view of an overweight figure. [2] NPG 503 shows a heavy man, evidently a Pacific explorer: the book-titles recall the great explorers (they are not real titles and the cryptic reference to Banks, see above, might even reflect that strained relationship [3]) and the globe shows Vancouver’s route and has Vancouver marked. The prominent Bible is appropriate for Vancouver’s high-mindedness. The likelihood is that this is a portrait of Vancouver painted between 1796 and 1798 (as both Watt and Kaye Lamb have argued), [4] although it seems strange that no engraving was made of it for his Voyage of Discovery published in 1798.
Later copies of NPG 503 as Vancouver, include those by R. L. Allridge (1890, Vancouver Museum); by W. Bright Morris (1914, Town Hall, King’s Lynn); R. Swan (Maritime Museum of British Colombia), and anonymous (Bishop Museum, Honolulu, inscribed English Navigator and a true friend of the Hawiians).
Imaginative statues of Vancouver are in front of the City Hall, Vancouver, by Charles Marega 1936; on the Parliament Building, Victoria BC, and a bronze by Vernon March 1911 was sold Christie’s, 11 December 1979, lot 260.

Footnotesback to top

1) In successive editions of the NPG cats.
2) Illustrating the episode in Conduit Street, when Lord Camelford, who had been severely disciplined by Vancouver during the American voyage, attacked him (M. D. George, British Museum, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires, VII, 8823).
3) Banks once said of Vancouver that ‘his manner towards me was not such as I am used to receive from persons in his situation’ (J. Gascoigne, Banks and the English Enlightenment, 1994, p 38); on the Pacific voyage Vancouver eventually placed Archibald Menzies, the botanist sponsored by Banks, under open arrest.
4) G. Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery..., IV, ed. W. Kaye Lamb [Hakluyt Soc.] 1984, pp 1612-13; J. Watt, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, IV, 1987, pp 45-48.

Physical descriptionback to top

Grey eyes, white powdered wig, wearing a green coat and waistcoat with brass buttons, seated on a green-upholstered wooden chair; a red curtain to the left; the books on the right are, on the top shelf: COOK’S VOYAGE, Anson’s/Voyage, Magellan/Voyage, Ba/nk/Voy ...; second shelf: Com/Voyage, Drake/Voy ...; HOLY BIBLE by his left wrist, on the globe Vancouver (in pink lettering) was prominent but has been almost erased; otherwise lettered NORTH AMERICA Cook Track/Gulf/Car ...

Provenanceback to top

Thomas Ford, Islington;¹ Christie’s, 29 June 1878, lot 77, purchased.

¹ In a letter to Christie’s, 20 March 1878, Ford said the portrait had belonged ‘many years since’ to a West Indian planter called Brooke, and was supposed to be by Gainsborough (NPG archives). Is it worth supposing that the alleged previous owner of NPG 503 might conceivably have been related to the Robert Brooke (fl. 1764-d. 1802), governor of St Helena, who had advised Vancouver on his return journey?

Exhibitionsback to top

Pageant of Canada, Ottawa, 1967 (131); Capt. George Vancouver, Vancouver BC, 1987.


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.