Self-Portrait is a c.1773 portrait painting by the English artist Nathaniel Dance-Holland. A self-portrait, it features Dance-Holland in the fashionable style of the era. Dance-Holland spent a decade in Italy from 1754 and initially produced neoclassical history paintings. On his return to Britain in 1765 he became a leading portrait painter and was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy. He later served as a Member of Parliament. It was at one point claimed that it might be the self-portrait he supplied to the Society of Dilettanti when he became a member in 1777, however he had not supplied a painting by the time he resigned in 1784. Today the painting is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, having been acquired in 1948.
References
Bibliography Barnden, Sally & McMullan, Gordon & Retford, Kate & Tambling, Kirsten (ed.). Shakespeare's Afterlife in the Royal Collection: Dynasty, Ideology, and National Culture. Oxford University Press, 2025. Fenton, James. School of Genius: A History of the Royal Academy of Arts. Harry N. Abrams, 2006. Ingamells, John. National Portrait Gallery Mid-Georgian Portraits, 1760–1790. National Portrait Gallery, 2004. Palmer, Allison Lee. Historical Dictionary of Neoclassical Art and Architecture. Scarecrow Press, 2011.


