This is a posthumous likeness, taken from a mask after death, but
considered by all who knew him to be a faithful resemblance. When
Queen Charlotte went to see it, and the curtain which covered it
was withdrawn, she was so struck with its truth, that she burst
into tears. Many copies with slight variations were executed; one
of them is now in the National Portrait Gallery. It is engraved in
mezzotint by Turner. It is a fair specimen of George Francis
Joseph, an indifferent artist, who was elected an associate of the
Royal Academy after painting this portrait. He died in 1846.
Perceval, who became Prime Minister in October, 1809, was
assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons by Bellingham, on
May 11th, 1812. The official documents he holds in his hand remind
us that his state papers were not at all to the taste of the Prince
Regent, who remarked, "that it was a great misfortune to Mr.
Perceval to write in a style which would disgrace a respectable
washerwoman."