Overall: 69cm x (27in) x 69cm (23.5in)
Provenance: Sotheby’s London: Trafalgar: Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars, 5 October 2005, lot 87.
Mezzotint. Superb half length self-portrait, holding a porte-crayon and a copy of Barnard’s immensely popular engraving of Lord Nelson, looking to the front, his right elbow resting on a table to the left. Engraved by N. Green. Published by 14th November 1805 by John Harris, No. 30, Conduit Street, Bond Street, London.
Lemuel Abbott’s full length portrait of Nelson of 1797 has been judged to be the most widely recognised in the whole of the Nelson iconography. Abbott is said to have made up to 40 versions of it though Nelson only sat to him twice. Abbott’s painting was engraved in mezzotint by Barnard and brought recognition to both Abbott and Nelson. The 1797 portrait was begun when Abbott and Rear-Admiral Nelson were living in the same lodgings in Bond Street. The finished work won the approval of both subject and his wife, with Fanny Nelson writing that ‘The likeliness is great; I am well pleased with Abbott.’
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Lemuel Francis Abbott (1760-1803) was a the son of a clergyman and was born in Leicestershire. At the age of 14, he became a pupil of the painter Francis Hayman in London, but returned to his parents after his master’s death in 1776. Thereafter he continued to develop his artistic talents independently, although it has been suggested that he may also have studied with Joseph Wright of Derby. In 1780, Abbott married and again settled in London, residing for many years in Caroline Street in Bloomsbury. Although he exhibited at the Royal Academy, he never became an Academician, due to a constant stream of commissions. While the Nelson portrait was Abbott's most famous work, he painted other historically important figures including Admiral Sir Robert Calder, Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley and Captain William Locker, astronomer Sir William Herschel, poet William Cowper, artists Francesco Bartolozzi and Joseph Nollekens, entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and industrialist John Wilkinson. It is said that overwork, and domestic unhappiness led to his declining mental health. He was declared insane in 1798 and was treated by the Bethlem Hospital ‘mad doctor’ Thomas Munro (1759–1833), who also treated George III.