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 government oversaw the loss of the American colonies. North's twelve-year ministry was one of the most consequential and controversial in British political history. Dance's portraits combined the formal conventions of Grand Manner portraiture with a cooler, more austere palette and sculptural figure treatment that reflected his years studying in Rome under the...

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.