Portrait of George Canning

George Canning
George Canning
Artist	Thomas Lawrence
Year	1826
Type	Oil on canvas, portrait
Dimensions	238.1 cm × 147.3 cm (93.7 in × 58.0 in)
Location	National Portrait Gallery, London;

George Canning is an 1826 full-length portrait by the British artist Thomas Lawrence of the statesman George Canning, a leading Tory politician. His career had been seriously disrupted by his 1809 duel with his cabinet colleague Lord Castlereagh, until his appointment as Foreign Secretary in 1822 after Castlereagh's suicide led him to a revival. He is shown speaking in the House of Commons. It was painted around the same time as Lawrence was depicting Canning's colleague the Duke of Wellington. Commissioned by Robert Peel, it was one of eight portraits he exhibited at the Royal Academy that year. It received qualified praise from fellow painter John Constable.^[1] The following year Canning became Prime Minister in succession to Lord Liverpool, but suffering from poor health died at Chiswick House after just 119 days in office. The paining was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1826 at Somerset House and again at the British Institution in Pall Mall in 1830. It is now part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.^[2]

References

Davies, Huw J. Wellington's Wars: The Making of a Military Genius. Yale University Press, 2012.
Levey, Michael. Sir Thomas Lawrence. Yale University Press, 2005.