Samuel Butler

This portraitback to top

Borsselaer worked in England c.1665-c.1679, his patrons largely Royalist or Catholic. [1] The attribution of NPG 5924 is based on the overall similarity to NPG 2468 (although with a lighter touch) and it may be compared with Borsselaer’s signed portrait of Sir William Dugdale, dated 1665. [2]
Although the identity was dismissed by Piper [3], it is now accepted as showing Butler some years younger than in the Soest or Luttrell portraits; the provenance appears impeccable.

Footnotesback to top

1) See T. Barber in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and C. H. Collins Baker, Connoisseur, 64, 1922, pp 5-15.
2) Priv. Coll., illus. Connoisseur, 64, 1922, p 11.
3) D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 50 (NPG 2468 n1) - [NPG 5924] did ‘not represent Butler, and apparently was by neither Lely nor Soest’.

Referenceback to top

Simon and Saywell (eds)
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 94.

Provenanceback to top

1st Earl of Clarendon, Clarendon House; William Longueville (1630-1721);¹ his son, Charles Longueville in 1749;² Thomas Hayter, Salisbury, in 1824;³ Earl Nelson, Normanswood, his sale, Wolley & Wallis, 14 March 1951, lot 304 as Lely; Sotheby’s, 20 November 1985, lot 34; Lane Fine Art, from whom purchased 1987.

¹ A lawyer, close friend of Butler, see M. Chan in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
² A portrait of Butler by Lely in ‘his early manner’, was listed by Vertue in Mr Longueville’s collection (II, p 59).
³ Granger 1824, V, p 242: ‘... an undoubted original picture of Butler, in the possession of Thomas Hayter Esq. of Salisbury. This is the portrait that formerly belonged to Mr Longueville’.

Reproductionsback to top

J. Nixon 1750, from a drawing by B. Lens 1749 (as by Lely, ‘from a picture painted for the use of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon Now in the possession of Charles Longueville Esq’).


This extended catalogue entry is by John Ingamells, one of a limited number of entries drafted in 2010 for the incomplete catalogue, Early Stuart Portraits 1625-1685, and is as written 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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