Speaking to his old Peckham pupil, Samuel Bishop,
whom, after many years, he met accidentally in London, he asked him
eagerly whether he had got an engraving of the new portrait, and finding
he had not, 'said with some emotion, "if your picture had been
published, I should not have suffered an hour to elapse without
procuring it."' But he was speedily 'appeased by apologies.' (Prior's
'Life', 1837, i. 219-20.)
[footnote]** There is in existence another undated etching by Bretherton
after Bunbury on a larger scale, which comes much nearer to Reynolds;
and it is of course possible, though not in our opinion probable, that
Mrs. Gwyn may have referred to this. But Forster selected the other for
his comparison; it is prefixed to the 'Haunch of Venison'; it is
certainly the better known; and (as we believe) cannot ever have been
intended for a caricature.
The portrait by Reynolds, above referred to, was painted for the Thrale
Gallery at Streatham, on the dispersion of which, in May, 1816, it was
bought for the Duke of Bedford for 133 pounds 7s.
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