Studio of Jonathan Richardson

Prior was a noted English poet and diplomat, as well as a contributor to Jonathan Swift's The Examiner. The present work is a half length copy of the three quarter length portrait of 1718 in the Portland Collection at Welbeck. A three-quarter length copy by Thomas Wright, painted circa 1730, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London (NPG 91), and other replicas include those at Cirencester Park and the Bodleian Library. For further details on the iconography of Prior, see J. Ingamells, Later Stuart Portraits 1685 - 1714, London 2009, pp. 226-230.