Miscellaneous Portraits

70 x 92 mm. Oval print. Three quarter length portrait of Sir Edward George Grey seated with his elbow resting on a table. Grey entered the Army in 1829 and spent periods of exploration in Australia in 1837 and 1839-40. He was Lieutenant Governor of South Australia 1841-45, Governor of New Zealand 1846-54 and 1861-67, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope 1854-61 and Prime Minister of New Zealand 1877-79. This portrait is accompanied by a letter from Adolphe Beau of Forest Hill to the Secretary of the Royal Colonial Institute (dated 29 September 1898) offering copies for sale of this photograph. Beau states that: 'Having among my negatives of portraits, - (carefully preserved since relinquishing my studio in Regent Street) an excellent likeness of the late Sir George Grey, I believe it might interest many of his friends to know that such portrait is in existence ... Should you wish to see the same, I would be glad to call on you on my next coming to town, at the same time supplying you with any information as to sizes and prices'.

A further note, of 3 October, states that he will bring a copy of the portrait to the Institute the following day. How Beau obtained the negative is unknown, and the date is certainly incorrect.

This portrait appears in volume V of the Cape Monthly Magazine of January/June 1859 and is generally credited to Frederick York. It was certainly taken at the Cape since the studio props can also be seen in photographs taken for other issues of the magazine.

Y3059D/1.

Indexed

CN 1643 and 2862.