Skip to main content

Primary sourcePainting1754 (completed 1756)

Portrait of Lord North

Pompeo Batoni · 1754 (completed 1756)

An oil portrait of the young Frederick North painted in Rome during his Grand Tour, before his political career began.

This portrait shows Frederick North as a young man on his Grand Tour, before he became Prime Minister.

Ask Lord Frederick North about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Oil portrait of a young man with light curled hair seated at a marble table, holding a quill pen over a sheet of paper. He wears a green coat with red-orange facings, a yellow waistcoat, and a dark blue neckcloth, and rests his other hand on his knee in front of a red upholstered chair.
Pompeo Batoni, Portrait of Lord North, 1754 (completed 1756). National Portrait Gallery, London.

About this source

What it is

This is an oil painting of Frederick North painted by the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni. North sat for the portrait in Rome in 1753, during his Grand Tour, and it was finished a few years later. It is now held by the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Why it matters

Batoni specialised in painting young British aristocrats on their Grand Tour, and this portrait captures North before he entered politics, shortly before he became an MP. It shows the kind of elite education and continental travel expected of a future statesman, and offers a rare glimpse of North as a young man rather than the political figure he later became as Prime Minister during the American Revolution.

Look closer

  • What does North's clothing and pose suggest about his social status?
  • Why might a young aristocrat want a formal portrait made while travelling abroad?
  • How does this image differ from how you might imagine North as Prime Minister?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Lord Frederick North on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Lord Frederick North sources

Meet the AI Lord Frederick North →
Painting of a man with white powdered hair seated in a chair, turned toward the left. He wears a black robe with ornate gold embroidered trim, a blue sash across his chest, and lace cuffs. Red draped fabric hangs behind him.Painting

Primary source

Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford

Nathaniel Dance-Holland · 1773

Engraved political cartoon satirizing Britain's 1774 policy toward America: a seated, wig-wearing doctor pours a bitter draught down the throat of a reclining female figure representing America. Onlookers include men in tricorn hats, a soldier with a sword and sash, and a figure labeled Boston Port Bill on a paper. Ships and cannon fire appear in the background, and the caption reads The able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught.Painting

Primary source

The Able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught

Anonymous, British, 18th century · 1774

Scan of the Olive Branch Petition, a handwritten parchment with two sheets joined together. The left sheet holds dense text and a column of signatures, with John Hancock's large signature at the top. The right sheet has further signatures grouped by colony, such as Virginia and North Carolina.Document

Primary source

Olive Branch Petition

John Dickinson · 8 July 1775

Scan of the printed 1775 royal proclamation headed 'By the KING, A PROCLAMATION, For suppressing Rebellion and Sedition', with a crown and lion coat of arms above, the text 'GEORGE R.' and a dense block of legal text, dated at St. James's on the twenty-third day of August 1775, signed 'God save the King', and printed in London by Charles Eyre and William Strahan.Document

Primary source

Proclamation of Rebellion

George III of Great Britain · 23 August 1775

Document

Primary source

Massachusetts Government Act 1775

1774

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Lord Frederick North now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions