Sir William Gell

Cornelius Varley (1781-1873),

1816

Pencil on paper

19 3/4 in. x 13 5/8 in. (502 mm x 346 mm)

National Portrait Gallery London NPG 5086; purchsed 1956

According to Cynthia Gamble, Gell (1777-1836) was a “distinguished antiquary, archaeologist and travel writer. At the time, Sir William who lived in Naples in the Villa Anspach, a palace on the Chiatamone overlooking the bay. His intimate and colourful companions were the Hon. Keppel Craven, thought to be the illegitimate son of Lady Craven who had left England in a hurry and a flurry of scandal, and Sir William Drummond, a diplomat and scholar. To what extent the three men enjoyed ‘the closest bonds of friendship’ can be surmised from their burial in a single tomb in the Protestant cemetery in Naples.”