'A Noble Writer' — Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope

Pellegrini renders the historian and parliamentarian Lord Stanhope in strict profile, arms folded beneath a voluminous black frock coat, a tall silk hat exaggerating the dome of his head. The caption reads 'a noble writer' — a double pun on his peerage and his pen, for Stanhope was a prolific historian of Marlborough, Pitt the Younger, and the '45. A coronet in the upper corner signals his rank. Pellegrini's signature caricature mode inflates the torso while shrinking the legs, giving the Earl a self-satisfied, slightly ridiculous gravity. The ruddy, jowled profile and white side-whiskers are rendered with the mild mockery Ape reserved for literary grandees who took themselves very seriously — which Stanhope, founding benefactor of the National Portrait Gallery, certainly did.