John Walker

This portraitback to top

The sitter bears a general resemblance to the earlier engraved miniature by Barry and is identified by the books on the table, Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of 1791, Elements of Elocution of 1781 and the Rhetorical Grammar of 1785. The attribution to Ashby is based on comparison with his few known works and it is assumed that NPG 5493 was the portrait of Walker he exhibited in 1802. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) Apparent from a note made by Thomas Buzzard on discovering Ashby’s portrait listed by Graves in 1905 (copy in NPG archive).

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, white hair, wearing a black suit, an open book in his hand (illegibly inscribed), seated in a red chair; on the green tablecloth to the left, an inkwell and three books: WALKER’S/PRONOUNCING/DICTIONARY stands on ELEMENTS/OF ELOCUTION which lies on top of RE .../GRAMMAR.

Provenanceback to top

Dr Thomas Buzzard (d. 1919), by descent; Phillips, 26 April 1982, lot 104, bought Leggatt for the NPG.

Exhibitionsback to top

RA 1802 (149, Mr Walker, Professor of Elocution).


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.

View all known portraits for John Walker