William Charles Wentworth

This portraitback to top

This is a reduced cast of Woolner's medallion of Wentworth, executed in Australia in 1854. Woolner wrote home on 19 March 1854 (Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner: his Life in Letters (1917), p 73): 'You will have seen by the newspapers I sent how highly a medallion of Wentworth I did is spoken of. There has been the greatest praise bestowed upon it but as was the case in England with me the matter seems to end there.' Woolner had hoped to obtain the commission for a projected statue of Wentworth, but his efforts in Australia and later in England proved unsuccessful. Bronze casts of the larger medallion are in the following collections: Sydney University, reproduced Connoisseur Year Book (1957), p 51, possibly that formerly in the collection of F. Wentworth; B. Venus; Miss Anne White. Another is reproduced Amy Woolner, facing p 35. The type was exhibited RA, 1856 (1282).

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from the artist's daughter, Miss Amy Woolner, 1912.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, 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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