Portrait of Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-1792). Oil on canvas in gilt frame. Cartwright appears half length, facing left, in a plain brown waistcoat and white shirt, against a dark background.

This portrait formed part of the Bennet Woodcroft Bequest, which was among the founding collections of the Science Museum. Woodcroft had developed a 'National Gallery of Portraits of Inventors, Discoverers and Introducers of the Useful Arts’ combining gifts, loans and purchases of portraits, while acting as the first curator of the Patent Museum.

An engraving of this portrait was made by Thomas Oldham Barlow and included in the Portfolio of 'Portraits of Inventors of Machines for the Manufacture of Textile Fabrics with Memoirs' published by Thomas Agnew & Sons with an introduction by Woodcroft in 1863 (see 1980-840). Text under the print lists it as being based on an original portrait by ‘T[homas] Gainsborough’ in Woodcroft's collection.

A portrait of Richard Arkwright by Thomas Gainsborough appeared in an auction at the Crown Hotel, Scarborough in early 1857 (Lot 63, 27 March). Woodcroft was made aware of the auction by Paul Rapsey Hodge in a letter of 21 March 1857, with Hodge suggesting that Woodcroft purchase the portrait for the Gallery of Portraits of Inventors (within the Patent Museum, an ancestor of the Science Museum). Woodcroft responded that he did ‘not feel myself at liberty to speculate to the extent necessary in order to secure’ the painting, however he asked Hodge to provide him with the details of the sale after the auction. These details, if sent by Hodge, do not survive.

A little earlier in the same month, Woodcroft wrote to R. A. Charlton ‘with reference to the picture of Arkwright mentioned in your conversation with me this morning’, asking Charlton for the provenance of the portrait and the date it was painted (11 March 1857). Charlton’s response, if provided, does not survive, so it is unclear if his picture is the Gainsborough that was about to go on sale at the Scarborough auction.

Just over a year later, in May 1858, Charlton loaned Woodcroft the portrait. Woodcroft noted that the painting was in a poor state and suggested getting it restored, saying he would be happy to pay for the restoration if Charlton agreed to a longer-term loan. Charlton responded that if the cost was high he would be happy to give Woodcroft ‘the possession’ of the painting for a longer period (7 May 1858). It is unclear which of Charlton or Woodcroft ended up paying for the restoration, however in the 1859 fifth (and final) edition of the Catalogue of the Gallery of Portraits of Inventors it is listed as 'Lent for exhibition' by Charlton (entry 155), so it is perhaps likely that Woodcroft paid in exchange for a longer-term loan. The catalogue entry does not provide details of the portrait’s artist, so it remains unclear whether Charlton’s painting is the Gainsborough picture.

By August 1860 Woodcroft had the Gainsborough picture in his possession, because Barlow asked to borrow the ‘original picture portrait of Arkwright by Gainsborough for a few days’ to show it to Agnew & Sons.

There are therefore two possible scenarios. The first is that the Charlton picture and the Gainsborough picture are two different portraits of Arkwright, which would mean that Woodcroft acquired the Gainsborough picture sometime before August 1860 in circumstances that no longer survive. In this scenario, the Gainsborough picture remains in the SMG Collection (this portrait, 1903-212) but the Charlton picture does not, having perhaps been returned to Charlton by Woodcroft. The second scenario is that the Charlton picture is the Gainsborough picture and that this is the portrait that remains in the SMG Collection (1903-212). Woodcroft often made copies of portraits. So, within both scenarios is the possibility that Woodcroft made a copy of the original portrait, and this copy is the portrait that remains in the collection (1903-212).

The attribution to Gainsborough, though prevalent in Woodcroft's time, is now doubtful.