George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, later first Baron Dover

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Artist: Thomas Lawrence (British, 1769–1830)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 36 x 29 inches (91.4 x 73.7 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The Honorable George Agar-Ellis (1797–1833), MP, FRS, FSA, (later first Baron Dover) was the only son of the second Viscount Clifden and sat as a Whig member of Parliament, where he supported Catholic emancipation. In July 1823, in a speech in the House of Commons, he urged the government to purchase the collection of John Julius Angerstein (1735–1823), an insurance broker and connoisseur of art, and use it as the foundation of a future national art collection in London.

The proposal was ultimately successful, and in due course Agar-Ellis became a trustee of the new National Gallery, and of the British Museum. A good friend of Sir Thomas Lawrence, he joined the future prime ministers Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen as a pallbearer at Lawrence’s funeral in 1830, to which the king and many other noble households sent empty carriages in procession, the usual method of paying tribute.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.