Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

William Wilberforce, 1828

Sir Thomas Lawrence

British parliamentarian and social reformer William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was renowned for his high principles and great personal charm. His life’s work was as parliamentary leader of the abolitionist movement. Having campaigned tirelessly for twenty years to end the slave trade, declaring to Parliament in 1791 that ‘never, never will we desist till we ... extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic’, Wilberforce’s Bill was eventually passed with a standing ovation in 1807. He then campaigned for the total abolition of slavery, dying one month before the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833.

This portrait was begun in 1828, after Wilberforce, suffering from extreme skeletal degeneration, retired from Parliament on account of ill health. His constant discomfort helps explain the awkward pose and unfinished state of this painting. With only one sitting, Sir Thomas Lawrence captured both ‘the intellectual power and winning sweetness of the veteran statesman’.

National Portrait Gallery, London Given by executors of Sir Robert Harry Inglis, 2nd Bt, 1857
© National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency