Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford (1676–1745), Prime Minister

Sir Robert Walpole dominated British politics for over two decades as the country's first de facto Prime Minister, and Jean-Baptiste van Loo painted this portrait around 1740, near the end of Walpole's long tenure in office. Van Loo had established himself as the leading fashionable portraitist in London following his arrival in 1737, and securing the likeness of the most powerful man in Britain was a measure of that status. Walpole, who had navigated the Hanoverian succession, managed Parliament through patronage and persuasion, and overseen an extended period of relative peace, was approaching the political crisis that would end his ministry in 1742. The portrait is now in the Government Art Collection, a fitting repository for an image of a figure so central to the formation of the modern British state. Van Loo painted several members of the Walpole family, and his portraits of Robert function as the defining visual record of the statesman in his later years. The composition follows the conventions of grand manner portraiture adapted to the lighter touch of the Rococo.

Van Loo presents Walpole in a format appropriate to his political stature, with attention to the details of official dress and the accoutrements of power. The paint surface is confident and fluid, with direct handling in the face and more detailed attention to the textures of coat, lace, and wig. Warm amber tones lend the composition a sense of authority.