Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Lord Heathfield of Gibraltar', 1787
About the work
Overview
General George Augustus Eliott, later Lord Heathfield (1770–90) defended the British territory of Gibraltar against a long siege by the Spanish and their French allies, which ended on 13 September 1782.
Reynolds captures the moment of danger before the General’s triumph at Gibraltar. He holds a giant key symbolising the ‘key of Gibraltar’ which he refuses to give up to the Spanish. Standing on the rock against a backdrop of billowing black smoke, Heathfield gazes steadfastly into the distance. The portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787 and an engraving was made of it soon after to capitalise on Heathfield’s fame. Other artists have always particularly admired this portrait for Heathfield’s indomitable expression.
Within 20 years of being painted, the portrait was already in poor condition. The extensive cracking is a result of the defects of Reynolds’s painting technique.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Lord Heathfield of Gibraltar
- Artist
- Sir Joshua Reynolds
- Artist dates
- 1723 - 1792
- Date made
- 1787
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 142 × 113.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1824
- Inventory number
- NG111
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Commissioned by Alderman John Boydell and presented by him to the Corporation of the City of London 1794; removed from Guildhall in 1809 by his nephew Josiah Boydell, replaced with a copy and offered for sale first privately, then from 31 May 1809 at the European Museum, Pall Mall, where purchased by [Sir] Thomas Lawrence RA 7 June 1809; presumably mortgaged or sold by Lawrence at some unknown date to John Julius Angerstein; purchased with the Angerstein collection for the National Gallery 1824.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1782'General Elliott, Report of the Action', Annual Register, 1782, pp. 238ff
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1782'Description of Scene of Destruction of Spanish Floating Batteries', Gentleman's Magazine, 1782, pp. 511-2, 545-6
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1785J. Drinkwater, A History of the Siege of Gibraltar, London 1785
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1787'Report on Progress of Reynolds' Portrait', Morning Chronicle, 1787
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1787'Report of Reynolds' Portrait at the Royal Academy Show', St. James's Chronicle, 1787
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1787London, Royal Academy Library: Reynolds' Sitter Book, 1787
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1788Royal Academy of Arts, The Exhibition of the Royal Academy (exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, 1788), London 1788
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1794A.J. Boydell, A Description of Several Pictures Presented to the Corporation of the City of London by John Boydell, Alderman of the Ward of Cheap, and Placed in the Common-Council Chamber of the City, London 1794
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1809J. Barry, The Works of James Barry Esq., Historical Painter, London 1809
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1823J. Young, A Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Pictures of the Late John Julius Angerstein, Esq: Containing a Finished Etching of Every Picture, and Accompanied with Historical and Biographical Notices, London 1823
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1825National Gallery, A Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery Pall Mall, London 1825
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1830A. Cunningham, The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1830
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1833J.D. Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, Frankfurt am Main 1833
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1835W.Y. Ottley, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery: With Critical Remarks on their Merits, London 1835
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1836J.D. Passavant, Tour of a German Artist in England, London 1836
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1854G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
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1874E. Hamilton, The Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, London 1874
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1899A. Graves and W.V. Cronin, A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds P.R.A., 4 vols, London 1899
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1934W.C. Abbott, Documents Relating to the International Status of Gibraltar 1704-1934, New York 1934
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1937H. Walpole, Horace Walpole Correspondence, ed. W.S. Lewis, 48 vols, New Haven 1937
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1940P. Sumner, 'Morier Paintings at Wilton', Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, XIX, 1940
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1946Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
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1946M. Davies, Paintings and Drawings on the Backs of National Gallery Pictures, London 1946
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1959Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
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1960W.B. Pope, The Diary of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Cambridge MA 1960
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1966J.D. Proun, John Singleton Copley in England, Cambridge MA 1966
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1968M. Cormack, 'The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds', The Walpole Society, XLII, 1970, pp. 105-69
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1974G. Hills, Rock of Contention: A History of Gibraltar, London 1974
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1976H. Potterton, Reynolds and Gainsborough, Themes and Painters in the National Gallery 2, London 1976
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1978A. Macintyre and K. Garlick (eds), The Diary of Joseph Farington, vol. 5, New Haven 1978-1984
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1981E.K. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th-Century Painters in Oils and Crayons, Woodbridge 1981
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1982D. Evans, Mather Brown: Early American Artist in England, Middletown, Conneticut 1982
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1985H.A. Bruntjen, John Boydell (1719-1804): A Study of Art Patronage and Publishing in Georgian London, facsimile edn, Ann Arbor 1985
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1986V. Knight, The Works of Art of the Corporation of London, Cambridge 1986
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1990D. Shawe-Taylor, The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society, London 1990
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1992A. Wilton, The Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain from Van Dyck to Augustus John 1630-1930 (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 14 October 1992 - 10 January 1993), London 1992
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1993G.L. Carr, 'David, Boydell and "Socrates": A Mixture of Anglophilia, Self-Promotion and the Press', Apollo, CXXXVII/375, 1993, pp. 307-15
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1995M. Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Subject Pictures, Cambridge 1995
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1995J. Simon, 'The Account Book of James Northcote', The Walpole Society, LVIII, 1996, pp. 21-125
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1998J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
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1998C. Keisch, P.-K. Schuster and M. Wullen, Fontane und die bildende Kunst (exh. cat. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 4 September - 29 November 1998), Berlin 1998
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2000Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2005Joshua Reynolds e l'invenzione della celebrità, Ferrara 2005
About this record
If you know more about this painting 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.
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