John Palmer

Inscriptionback to top

Wooden backing inscribed in ink: portrait of [the/late] Jo Palmer/never exhibited.

This portraitback to top

The identity is corroborated by the engraved oval pastel of 1786 by John Russell in the Garrick Club. Unattributed while at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NPG 6167 was sold in 1992 as by Thomas Hull, apparently as the result of a confused association with Hull’s miniature of another John Palmer (1742-1818) exhibited in 1827; [1] a miniature of ‘John Palmer’ by Hull c.1795 was sold Sotheby’s, Chester, 17-19 November 1987, lot 4035. [2]

Footnotesback to top

1) See NPG 4929 (R. J. B. Walker National Portrait Gallery, Regency Portraits, I, p 382, II, pl.919).
2) Not seen by the compiler.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, powdered hair, wearing a grey coat and white neckcloth.

Provenanceback to top

Moses Lazarus; given by the Misses Sarah and Josephine Lazarus to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1888; de-accessioned 1990; Christie’s, 4 March 1992, lot 78 attributed to Thomas Hull, bought Leggatt for the NPG.


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 Palmer