George Canning (1770-1827) Prime Minister

Location

Country: Brazil
City: Brasilia
Place: British Embassy

George Canning was Foreign Secretary from 1807 to 1809, and again from 1822 to 1827, in which year he became Prime Minister for just four months before his death. 

Brought up by his uncle, Stratford Canning, he was educated first at Eton, then at Christ Church, Oxford. He entered Parliament in 1793 and was made Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1796. He was a protégé of William Pitt the Younger and the trajectory of his early years in office was closely linked to that of Pitt: when Pitt resigned as Prime Minister in 1801, Canning also left government; when Pitt returned in 1804, Canning returned too and was made Treasurer of the Navy.

Canning was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1807, but his years in this post were characterised by rivalry with Castlereagh, Secretary of State for War, culminating in a duel in 1809 and Canning’s resignation. He stayed out of office until 1816, when he returned to the Cabinet and was made president of the Board of Control, but resigned in 1820 over the proceedings of the trial of Queen Caroline. 

Following the suicide of Castlereagh in 1822 he was reappointed Foreign Secretary and made Leader of the House of Commons. As Foreign Secretary, Canning recognised the legitimacy of the newly independent states in Latin America, and played an important role in the negotiations between Portugal and Brazil that led to Brazilian independence. 

Canning’s pro-Catholic sympathies, which had first risen to prominence in his and Pitt’s resignations of 1801, caused disruption in the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool. When Canning was asked to form a ministry by the King in 1827, half the Cabinet resigned and Canning was forced to build his government through the support of moderate Whigs. Canning’s short-lived term as Prime Minister produced very few results, and is remembered primarily for his defeat over the Corn Law Bill. 

Lawrence painted a number of portraits of Canning. The present work was copied after the portrait of Canning at Christ Church, Oxford, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1810.  

Sir Thomas Lawrence was born in Bristol; the son of a supervisor of excise. In 1773 the family moved to Wiltshire to run a coaching inn but financial difficulties led them to move again to Bath, where Lawrence first worked as a portraitist. He may have had lessons from William Hoare, before enrolling at the Royal Academy schools in 1787. Aged 20, he received a royal commission for portraits of Queen Charlotte (1789-90) and Princess Amelia (1789). At 23 he replaced Reynolds as Painter-in-Ordinary and at 25, became a Royal Academician. Despite such success, he never escaped crippling debt. In 1815 he was knighted and commissioned to paint the Waterloo Chamber series of portraits. He replaced West as President of the Royal Academy in 1820.

People

George Canning (1770 - 1827)

Places

Subjects

paper (as Subject), male portrait, man, 18th century costume, 19th century costume, coat, cravat, Prime Minister, column, curtain

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Sir Thomas (after) Lawrence
Alfred Edmund Dyer

Title

George Canning (1770-1827) Prime Minister

Date

1950

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 143.00 cm, width: 107.50 cm

Acquisition

Presented by the Dunlop Rubber Company, May 1950

Inscription

br: Edmund Dyer / after / Thomas Lawrence verso: Copied by / Edmund Dyer /50 after the original / by Sir Thomas Lawrence R.A.

Provenance

Copy of portrait by Lawrence in Christchurch, Oxford; commissioned by Dunlop Rubber Company and presented for the British Embassy, Rio de Janeiro, 1950.

GAC number

1101