Skip to main content

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, 'Portrait of Richard Milles', about 1759

About the work

This is Richard Milles of Nackington, a Member of Parliament for Canterbury from 1761 to 1780, who sat for this portrait when he was in Rome on his Grand Tour. He points to a map inscribed with ‘Grisons’, the name of a Swiss Canton that he probably visited on his way to Italy.

The classical columns at the right and sculpted bust of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius establish Milles‘ status as a learned, cultivated gentleman. He is magnificently dressed in a red fur-lined cape, a luxurious silver silk waistcoat and red breeches, and Batoni has confidently imitated the various textures and surfaces. Milles’ swaggering pose, with a hand placed firmly on his hip, is one of self-assurance and ease.

Batoni was established in Rome as the most sought-after portraitist of his day, and painted this portrait in around 1759, when he was at his most prolific.

Key facts

Full title
Portrait of Richard Milles
Artist
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
Artist dates
1708 - 1787
Date made
about 1759
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
134.6 × 96.3 cm
Acquisition credit
Bought, 1980
Inventory number
NG6459
Location
Room 37
Collection
Main Collection
Frame
18th-century English Frame

About this record

If you know more about this work or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni

Portrait of John Scott (?) of Banks Fee
Portrait of John Scott (?) of Banks Fee
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
This is traditionally said to be a portrait of the Englishman John Scott, who bought the estate at Banks Fee, near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, in 1753. During the early 1770s – around the same time as this work was produced – Scott did travel to Rome, where the famous portraitist Batoni...
Not on display
Time orders Old Age to destroy Beauty
Time orders Old Age to destroy Beauty
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
Time, the winged figure holding an hourglass, orders his companion Old Age to disfigure the face of a young woman, the personification of Beauty. This interaction encourages us to consider the brevity of youth and the inevitable passing of time.Batoni often drew from a live model when preparing h...
Not on display