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Tobias George Smollett

ca. 1770
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
In his 1766 Travels through France and Italy, Smollett showed little appreciation for Versailles: "In spite of all the ornaments that have been lavished on Versailles, it is a dismal habitation. The apartments are dark, ill-furnished, dirty, and unprincely. Take the castle, chapel, and garden all together, they make a most fantastic composition of magnificence and littleness, taste, and foppery." A melancholic mood dominates this portrait, which was painted in Pisa toward the end of the British novelist’s life.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Tobias George Smollett
  • Date: ca. 1770
  • Culture: probably Italian
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: Unframed: 27 × 20 3/4 in. (68.6 × 52.7 cm)
    Framed: 33 9/16 × 27 11/16 × 3 1/8 in. (85.2 × 70.3 × 8 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 1110)
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts