Dr Renn Dickson Hampden, Principal of St Mary Hall (1833–1848)

This portrait of Dr Renn Dickson Hampden, Principal of St Mary Hall Oxford and later Bishop of Hereford, depicts one of the most controversial figures in early Victorian Church of England politics. Hampden's appointment as Regius Professor of Divinity and later as bishop provoked intense opposition from the Oxford Movement, led by John Henry Newman, who considered his theology insufficiently orthodox. Maclise's portrait of this contentious churchman preserves the face of a man at the center of the theological controversies that would eventually bring Newman into the Roman Catholic Church. The Oxford connection reflects Maclise's ability to attract commissions from the ecclesiastical and academic establishment alongside his literary and theatrical subjects.

The academic portrait follows conventional formats with Maclise's characteristic precision, the scholarly setting and clerical dress rendered with careful attention to the textures and details of academic life.