About this artwork

Sir Joshua Reynolds and Edmund Burke were friends, the artist made the statesman one of his executors and left him £2,000 in his will. Reynolds was at his greatest in portraying men of intellect and in Burke he not only found a friend but one of the most brilliant minds and most powerful orators of the eighteenth century. Towards the end of his life Burke, an Irishman, was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
  • title:
    Edmund Burke, 1729 - 1797. Statesman, orator and author
  • date created:
    1774
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    76.20 x 63.50 cm; Framed: 96.52 x 83.82 x 11.43 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Bequeathed conditionally by Miss E. Drummond to the National Gallery of Ireland; transferred 1969
  • accession number:
    PG 2362
  • gallery:
  • depicted:
  • subject:
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Sir Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds