The Derby Cabinet Resolving Upon the Abyssinian Expedition

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Downing Street

This mezzotint print shows a meeting of the Derby Cabinet in the Cabinet Office, Downing Street, in 1867. It was made after a painting by Henry Gales. Gales’ work is reportedly based on a design by John Gilbert. The Prints and Drawings Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum have a similar mezzotint, which is described in their catalogue as engraved by ‘J. Scott, after H. Gales and J. Gilbert’.

In January 1869 the 'Liverpool Mercury' reported that: 'The subject is in process of engraving by Messrs. Graves, the well-known printsellers of London, and Mr. Grindley of this town.' A watercolour version by Gales was lent by Baroness Kinloss to the ‘Victorian Era’ exhibition of 1897 and is now in the collection of National Portrait Gallery, London. This watercolour is probably the painting which was exhibited in Liverpool and Dublin in 1869.

Henry Gales (also referred to as ‘G. H. Gales’) is known only for his painting ‘The Derby Cabinet Resolving Upon the Abyssinian Expedition’, which was exhibited at Mr E. Grindley’s Fine Art Gallery, Church Street, Liverpool, in January 1869 and at Mr. Cranfield’s, Grafton Street, Dublin, in September that year. A review of the work, published while it was on show in Dublin, referred to it as a ‘design by John Gilbert’ and reported ‘It is the first effort in a large painting which Mr. Gales has made’. Gales may have been a pupil of Gilbert. A watercolour of the scene by Gales, which is presumably the painting exhibited in 1869, was lent by Baroness Kinloss to the ‘Victorian Era’ exhibition (1897) and is now in the National Portrait Gallery.

People

Richard Southwell, 6th Earl of Mayo Bourke (1822 - 1872), Edward George Geoffrey Smith, 14th Earl of Derby Stanley (1799 - 1869), Gathorne, 1st Earl of Cranbrook Gathorne-Hardy (1814 - 1906), 1st Baron Hampton Pakington John Somerset (1799 - 1880), Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli (1804 - 1881), Charles Henry, 6th Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox, and 1st Duke of Gordon Gordon-Lennox (1818 - 1903), Richard, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos Grenville (1823 - 1889)

Places

England, London, Downing Street, Westminster

Subjects

painting (as Subject), ink pot/ink stand, portrait, male portrait, group portrait, 19th century costume, frock coat, waistcoat, trousers, clock, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Member of Parliament, Prime Minister, fireplace, bookcase, carpet, chair, table (as Subject), state interior

Materials & Techniques

mezzotint

Artist

Henry Gales

Title

The Derby Cabinet Resolving Upon the Abyssinian Expedition

Date

Medium

Mezzotint

Acquisition

Purchased from Suckling and Co., March 1965

GAC number

6885