Completed Portraits: British 18th C, Portraits: British 19th C 16 Did John Jackson (1778–1831) paint Francis Const?

Martin, do you have an image of the engraving? The links go to the BM site but the engraving is not reproduced (at least not on my computer). I tried searching directly via the BM but no luck.

Or is it by H.W. Pickersgill who exhibited a portrait of F. Const in 1834?
It is described as “[…] by far the best whole-length which Mr. Pickersgill has this year exhibited […]" in a contemporary newspaper article (Morning Post - Wednesday 02 July 1834, p5) and also listed in Graves dictionary: “Francis Coust (sic), Esq., late Chairman of the Middlesex Sessions. Painted for the great room in the Sessions House”.

The same collection has a reduced version of this portrait, as after Lawrence, so this may be a case of being able to kill two birds with one stone.

http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/francis-const-216097

Barbara, I am afraid that I have not found an image of the engraving. Andrea's discovery is very suggestive as to the correct attribution

Bingo, Andrea. This looks like the answer but let's check it a bit more. Maybe another confirming review. Still I'd be surprised if your excellent detective work did not prove to be correct.

Here is another article with a description of the painting from the Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser - Thursday 06 November 1834.

Thanks Barbara; a high res image would also be helpful to see whether the book is really inscribed "State Trials" as mentioned in the Public Ledger article.

This from The New Monthly Magazine of 1829 - on Google Books.

If the collection could oblige with a high res image, we could take the discussion further.

Al, Looking at the few works by Pegler doesn't suggest a close link with the portrait we are discussing (although it is interesting that he too painted Const and for the Sessions). H.W. Pickersgill's portrait of Jeremy Bentham at UCL(although not a full length in size) is similar in style and arrangement to the portrait under discussion. http://artuk.org/discover/artworks/jeremy-bentham-17481832-42335/search/actor:pickersgill-henry-william-17821875/page/1/view_as/grid

Let's have a look at the high res image when it comes and see if the book title can be read. Because if, as Andrea says, it is inscribed "State Trials", then I think we have our answer.

I should have noted that the excerpt about Pegler I posted comes from a review of the Royal Academy and is immediately preceded by a comment on works by Pickersgill, including a portrait of Bentham.

Please find attached close-up image of the volume included in the portrait... looks like we have a positive identification! Many thanks to Andrea and all others who have assisted in this exceptional piece of detective work. We (the Supreme Court) will be passing this information on to the Middlesex Guildhall Art Trust and seeking their agreement to change our public listings/attribution for this work.

Thanks, Middlesex, for the image and, yes, this does do the trick and we can close the discussion. In less than one day, this painting has had its proper attribution returned to it. Great result! Congratulations to Andrea for finding the key piece of information. This is how Art Detective should always work. Thanks too to Martin for kicking off the discussion by realising that this picture had lost its artist somewhere between Clerkenwell and Westminster. So it is Henry William Pickersgill's portrait of Francis Const exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834.

Fantastic result, thank you for all those that contributed.

Middlesex Guildhall Art Collection, please could you comment again when you have a reply from the Trust?

I will then close the discussion and update the Art UK record.

I am pleased to say that the MGAC trustees have agreed to attribute this holding to Pickersgill, and we will be updating all our records accordingly. We will also ensure that the portrait's listing on the Supreme Court website acknowledges the help of Art Detective contributors in identifying the correct artist! Thanks again to all involved.