Hon. Henry George Herbert (1772–1833), 2nd Earl of Carnarvon

Beechey's portrait of Henry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon (1772–1833), depicts a prominent Whig politician and literary patron at the height of his influence. Herbert was a noted book collector, a friend of Edmund Burke, and an active figure in Whig political culture at the turn of the nineteenth century. The portrait by Beechey — firmly established in the English official portrait tradition — served to document Herbert's social position at a moment when he was in his thirties or forties and at the height of his political influence.

Beechey's formal but warm approach to male portraiture is adapted here to a well-dressed aristocrat of literary and political distinction. The face receives careful, individualised attention while the dark coat and white linen provide the standard tonal framework.