Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford

This 1773 portrait of Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, at the National Portrait Gallery depicts the Prime Minister whose twelve-year government oversaw the loss of the American colonies — one of the most consequential and controversial ministries in British political history. North served as Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782 under George III, pursuing the policies that led to the American War of Independence and ultimately to the Treaty of Paris. The portrait was painted at the height of North's political authority, before the catastrophic military reverses in America. Nathaniel Dance combined the formal conventions of Grand Manner portraiture with the cooler, more austere palette and sculptural figure treatment that reflected his decade of study in Rome under the influence of Mengs and Batoni. His portraits of political figures carry an implicit dignity appropriate to subjects of constitutional significance. The National Portrait Gallery's collection of North's image documents one of the defining political relationships of the eighteenth century — between a king determined to maintain parliamentary supremacy over the colonies and a minister who prosecuted that policy to its disastrous conclusion.

The prime ministerial portrait renders North with the political authority of his office, Dance capturing the statesman's features with the directness and formal dignity appropriate to one of Britain's most important political leaders.