David Le Marchand

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed on bust: NEWTON/Le Marchand Sc.; signed on stone ledge, bottom right: J. Highmore. Pinxt.

This portraitback to top

In 1723 Vertue recorded that the young Highmore had painted Le Marchand, [1] presumably NPG 6142. The ivory bust of Newton seen in the portrait may be identified as that by Le Marchand dated 1718 presented by Mathew Raper III to the British Museum in 1765 [2] (NPG 6142 was displayed in the British Museum alongside this bust 1994-2000).
The Rapers, a successful merchant family, successively Directors of the Bank of England, were great patrons of Le Marchand; apart from their own portraits (which included the engaging likeness of a young and studious Matthew Raper III [3]) they commissioned a medallion of Wren, and the outstanding busts of Newton and Locke. [4]

Footnotesback to top

1) ‘Mr Marchand an Ingenious Man for carving in Ivory … his picture painted by J. Highmore’ (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXII, 1934, p 13) and ‘[Le Marchand] his picture painted by Mr Highmore, who is an ingenious young painter’ (G. Vertue, Notebooks, Wal. Soc., XXII, 1934, p 17); both passages may be dated 1723.
2) British Museum Donations Register (note by Kerslake on file); Kerslake indicated that Highmore’s bust of Newton shows slight differences - the signature is shown on a single line, the hair is slightly longer behind, and the base has been slightly rotated in relation to the shoulders (note on file, 31 July 1969). See also C. Avery, David le Marchand 1674-1726, 1996, no.68; A. Dawson, Portrait Sculpture, A catalogue of the British Museum collection c.1675-1975, 1999, no.57, and Newton.
3) Victoria and Albert Museum, A.10-1959; T. W. I. Hodgkinson, VAM Bulletin, I, II, 1965, pp 29-32; C. Avery, David le Marchand 1674-1726, 1996, pl.4, no.64.
4) C. Avery, David le Marchand 1674-1726, 1996, nos. 62-65a, 67-69.

Referenceback to top

Avery 1996
C. Avery, David le Marchand 1674-1726, 1996, p 20.

Kerslake 1972
J. Kerslake, Apollo, XCV, 1972, pp 25-29.

Highmore 1975
A. S. Lewis, Highmore, Harvard University Ph.D. Thesis 1975, University Microfilms, I, pp 30-32, 41; II, p 458, no.112.

Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 376.

Provenanceback to top

¹ [very probably commissioned by Mathew Raper II (1665-1748) of Thorley Hall, Herts.] By descent to Elizabeth Raper² who married William Grant (d. 1786), 2nd son of James, 7th of Rothiemurchus; by descent at Rothiemurchus;³ purchased by the NPG from Appleby 1969, but discovered to be stolen property and returned to the owner, Lieutenant Colonel J. P. Grant of Rothiemurchus, after an agreed loan period, 1972; purchased by private treaty through Michael Tollemache Ltd 1991.

¹ The provenance was principally established by Kerslake in 1972 (J. Kerslake, Apollo, XCV, 1972, pp 25-29); see also C. Avery, David le Marchand 1674-1726, 1996, pp 19, 86-89.
² Only child of John Raper, younger brother of Mathew Raper III.
³ By 1813 the Highmore was known as a portrait of Sir Christopher Wren, see E. Smith, ed. Lady Strachey, Memoirs of a Highland Lady 1797-1830, 1899, p 220, describing portraits recently brought to Rothiemurchus from Thorley Hall as including ‘two nearly full-length portraits, a Raper ancestor and his friend Sir Christopher Wren’; as Colonel Grant pointed out in 1932 (letter of 6 June, on file) there were then only two ‘nearly full-length’ portraits at Rothiemurchus, one of them NPG 6142 and the sitter was then correctly identified (H. M. Hake to Col. Grant, 7 June 1932, copy on file).

Exhibitionsback to top

British Museum 1994–2000.


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 David Le Marchand