Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) Cardinal c.1882

Location

Country: Holy See
City: Vatican City
Place: British Embassy

This etching was made after Watts’ portrait of Cardinal Manning in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Manning was ordained into the Church of England in 1832 and was made Archdeacon of Chichester in 1840. After the so-called Gorham judgement, the Privy Council ordered the Church of England to institute an evangelical cleric who denied that the sacrament of baptism had an objective effect of baptismal regeneration. According to Anglican vicar, George Cornelius Gorham, baptismal regeneration was conditional and dependent upon a later personal adoption of promises made, a view which was considered by many as Calvinistic. The denial of the objective effect of the sacraments was to Manning and many others a grave heresy, contradicting the clear tradition of the Christian Church from the Fathers of the Church. As a result he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1851. He became Archbishop of Westminster, the titular head of the Catholic Church in England, in 1865. Manning was the main proponent of papal infallibility at the first Vatican Council (1869–1870) and was made a cardinal in 1875. 

In this portrait, Watts portrayed Manning in a similar pose to the grand papal portraits of the Renaissance.

George Frederick Watts, historical and portrait painter, was born in London, the son of a maker of musical instruments. At the age of ten he was apprenticed to the sculptor William Behnes and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1835. After visiting Italy he returned to London in 1847, when his composition ‘Alfred’ won first prize in the House of Lords competition. However it was not until the 1880s that his pictures began to gain recognition and after exhibitions of his work in Manchester, New York and at the Grosvenor Gallery, London, he quickly established himself as a leading painter. Watts twice refused a baronetcy but finally accepted the Order of Merit.

People

Henry Edward Manning (1808 - 1892)

Places

Subjects

male portrait, 19th century costume, clerical costume, cardinal

Materials & Techniques

etching

Artist

George Frederick Watts (1817 - 1904)
George Wooliscroft Rhead (1855 - 1920)

Title

Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) Cardinal c.1882

Date

1882

Medium

Etching

Dimensions

height: 25.00 cm, width: 20.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Chiaroscuro Fine Art, April 1979

Inscription

below image: [right] G Wooliscroft Rhead.

GAC number

14509