Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke

Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764), Lord Chancellor.

Although the handling of this portrait is somewhat hard and mechanical, the design is undoubtedly Michael Dahl's. The sitter wears the black brocaded gown of the Lord Chancellor, an office he received in 1737. The chancellor's purse is on the table. The armchair is surmounted with an earl's coronet, apparently an alteration by a later hand (Hardwicke became earl in 1754). More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print)....