Henry Thoby Prinsep

Painting height: 50.8 cm
Painting width: 40.6 cm
Frame height: 79 cm
Frame width: 65 cm

A civil servant in the East India Company, Henry Thoby Prinsep (1792–1878) was a loyal patron and firm friend to Watts after Watts came to live with the Prinseps at their home at Little Holland House for over 20 years. This warm and affectionate portrait was painted towards the end of Watts’s tenancy. In this portrait, which was believed to capture ‘the whole biography of the sitter’, Prinsep appears in profile facing the right, with his head dominating the canvas. With light radiating from the left, the brow of the man is illuminated and Watt’s mastery in executing the flesh tones and texture of hair is displayed in the finely executed brushstrokes.

A portrait in which the ‘whole biography’ of the sitter has been captured. This character study of Henry Thoby Prinsep is one of several that Watts is known to have painted of his patron and friend during their time living together at Little Holland House, London. Although the Prinsep family name became synonymous with the thriving artistic environment that they established at their home, Henry Thoby’s professional career was far removed from his domestic life.

In 1809, a 17-year-old Prinsep travelled to Calcutta, the place where his parents had married in 1782. He spent two years there studying at Fort William College before moving to Murshidabad to become an assistant to the magistrate. He subsequently became the first man to hold the office of superintendent and remembrancer of legal affairs in 1816 and then advanced to the role of Persian secretary to the government in 1820. On his retirement in 1843, Prinsep returned to London and settled in London with his wife Sara Monckton Pattle. During this time, Prinsep served as a director of the East India Company, and established the family home at Little Holland House where Watts became an artist in residence and received the family’s patronship for over 20 years [1].

This portrait was painted towards the end of Watts’s tenancy with the family and is an affectionate and noble portrait of his friend. In this bust length portrait, Prinsep’s head viewed in profile fills the canvas. This dominance of space is at odds with Watts’s formal portrait studies of the famous men which he created for the ‘Hall of Fame’ series. The overall tone of this painting is warm and Prinsep’s brow is illuminated by light radiating from the left-hand side of the canvas, as he sits facing the right. In areas of the painting, in particular in the shoulder and the ear, the priming layer is visible underneath the finely painted top layer. The execution of the beard and the wisp of hair that sits on his forehead are extremely delicately and finely rendered.

In another version of the portrait photographed by Hollyer, the composition is similar to this one, but in the photographed version, Prinsep can be seen gazing downwards as he holds a book which appears in the bottom right hand corner of the canvas.

On completion, this portrait was gifted to Mrs Herbert Duckworth, one of Prinsep’s nieces, but a copy of it was requested by Watts’s patron Charles Rickards [2]. Writing in February 1871, Watts wrote to Rickards regarding a price for the work, ‘… as to the head of Mr Prinsep I think I can get it copied for you for 50’ [3]. Five months later Watts was still working on the copy and wrote to explain that it ‘is looking such I can improve by working upon from nature so I shall get him to give me a sitting before it goes’ [4]. The portrait was completed by mid-July 1871.

It is this version, which Watts painted for Rickards that is now in the Watts Gallery Trust Collection and is believed to be the one ‘the artist considered to be the best’ [5]. Exhibited for the first time at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881, the New Gallery in 1896 and the Royal Academy Memorial Exhibition in 1905, the head of Henry Thoby Prinsep was widely considered to be ‘one of his greatest portraits’ [6]. Writing in her Annals, Mary concluded that ‘there is a whole biography in the portrait head [of Thoby Prinsep]’ which enabled the man to live on in this fine work of art’ [7].

Explore:

Photograph of G.F. Watts's Painting 'Sir Henry Thoby Prinsep K.C.I.E. Born 1836. Died 19' (unknown) by Frederic Hollyer [COMWG2007.876]

The Sisters also known as Sophia Dalrymple and Sara Prinsep [COMWG.137]

Footnotes:

[1] A.J. Arbuthnot, revised by R.J. Bingle, ‘Prinsep, Henry Thoby (1792–1878)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn., Jan 2008.

[2] Mary Seton Watts, Catalogue of Portraits by G.F. Watts O.M. R.A., Vol. II, c.1915, p.128.

[3] Letter from G.F. Watts to C.H. Rickards 26^th February 1871, Watts Correspondence, Heinz Archive, National Portrait Gallery, GFW/1/2.

[4] Letter from G.F. Watts to C.H. Rickards 2^nd July 1871, Watts Correspondence, Heinz Archive, National Portrait Gallery, GFW/1/2.

[5] Marks Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery Compton, 2008), p.180.

[6] Marks Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery Compton, 2008), p.180.

[7] Mary Seton Watts, George Frederic Watts: Annals of an Artist’s Life, vol. II (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1912), p.124.

Further Reading:

A.J. Arbuthnot, revised by R.J. Bingle, ‘Prinsep, Henry Thoby (1792–1878)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn., Jan 2008.

Marks Bills and Barbara Bryant, G.F. Watts: Victorian Visionary (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery Compton, 2008).

Mary Seton Watts, Catalogue of Portraits by G.F. Watts O.M. R.A., Vol. II, c.1915.

Mary Seton Watts, George Frederic Watts: Annals of an Artist’s Life, vol. II (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1912).

Watts Correspondence, Heinz Archive, National Portrait Gallery, GFW/1/2.

Text by Dr Stacey Clapperton