Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt

John Linnell's portrait of Sir Robert Peel of 1838 documents the man who would become Britain's most significant Prime Minister of the mid-Victorian era at a critical point in his political career. Peel had already served as Prime Minister once (1834–35) and would return to form his great reforming government of 1841–46, during which he repealed the Corn Laws at the cost of splitting the Conservative party he had essentially created. Linnell was primarily known as a landscape painter and the father-in-law of Samuel Palmer, but he practiced portraiture throughout his career with accomplished professionalism. The National Portrait Gallery's picture catches Peel between his first and second premierships, a period of opposition leadership and political consolidation. It is a significant political portrait of a man who reshaped Victorian Britain.

Linnell paints Peel with the direct, unpretentious approach that distinguished his portraiture from more theatrical contemporaries. The face is carefully observed and individually modeled, conveying Peel's known seriousness and authority. The background is minimal, keeping attention on the sitter. The handling shows the accomplished naturalism Linnell brought from his landscape practice.