Godfrey Kneller

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Sir Godfrey Kneller,Template:Efn 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723) was a German-born British painter. The leading portraitist in England during the late Stuart and early Georgian eras, he served as court painter to successive English and British monarchs, including Charles II of England and George I of Great Britain. Kneller also painted scientists such as Isaac Newton, foreign monarchs such as Louis XIV of France and visitors to England such as Michael Shen Fu-Tsung. A pioneer of the kit-cat portrait, he was also commissioned by William III of England to paint eight "Hampton Court Beauties" to match a similar series of paintings of Charles II's "Windsor Beauties" that had been painted by Kneller's predecessor as court painter, Peter Lely.

Early life

File:John Vanbrugh.jpg
Sir John Vanbrugh in Kneller's Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Kneller's finest portraits

Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in the Free City of Lübeck, the son of Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter.<ref name="cb">Cokayne, George Edward (1906) Complete Baronetage. Volume V. Exeter: W. Pollard & Co. Template:LCCN. pp. 27–28</ref> Kneller studied in Leiden, but became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn in Amsterdam. He then travelled with his brother John Zacharias Kneller, who was an ornamental painter, to Rome and Venice in the early 1670s, painting historical subjects and portraits in the studio of Carlo Maratti, and later moved to Hamburg.

Career

The brothers came to England in 1676,<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> and won the patronage of the Duke of Monmouth. He was introduced to, and painted a portrait of, Charles II.

In England, Kneller concentrated almost entirely on portraiture. In the spirit of enterprise, he founded a studio which churned out portraits on an almost industrial scale, relying on a brief sketch of the face with details added to a formulaic model, aided by the fashion for gentlemen to wear full wigs. His portraits set a pattern that was followed until William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds.

Nevertheless, he established himself as a leading portrait artist in England. When Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, Kneller was jointly appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary with John Riley to the Crown by Charles II.<ref name="Chamberss Encyclopedia 1967 p. 246">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Winn 1992 p. 347">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Chilvers 2017 p. 726">Template:Cite book</ref>

For about 20 years (Template:Circa–1702) he lived at No. 1617 The Great Piazza, Covent Garden.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kneller's studio manager was Edward Byng.

In the 1690s, Kneller painted the Hampton Court Beauties depicting the most glamorous ladies-in-waiting of the Royal Court for which he received, in 1692, his knighthood from William III. In 1695, he received, in the presence of the King, an honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Oxford. In 1700, he was created a Knight of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Leopold I.<ref>Godfrey Kneller biography, tate.org.uk. Accessed 7 January 2023.</ref> He produced a series of "Kit-cat" portraits of 48 leading politicians and men of letters, members of the Kit-Cat Club.<ref name="cb"/>

Created a baronet by King George I on 24 May 1715,<ref name="cb" /> he was also head of the Kneller Academy of Painting and Drawing from 1711 until 1716 in Great Queen Street, London, which counted such artists as Thomas Gibson amongst its founding directors. His paintings were praised by Whig members including John Dryden, Joseph Addison,<ref>See e.g. Addison's poem "To Sir GODFREY KNELLER, on his PICTURE of the KING", eighteenthcenturypoetry.org. Accessed 7 January 2023.</ref> Richard Steele, and Alexander Pope.

On the landing in Horsham Museum in West Sussex hang works of art from the museum's extensive painting collection, featuring a large 18th-century portrait of Charles Eversfield and his wife, of Denne Park House.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal life

File:Arms of Kneller of Whitton.png
The coat of arms of Kneller of Whitton, Baronets<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

He married a widow, Susanna Grave, on 23 January 1704 at St Bride's Church, London.<ref name="cb" /> She was the daughter of the Reverend John Cawley, Archdeacon of Lincoln and Rector of Henley-on-Thames, and the granddaughter of regicide William Cawley.<ref name="cb" /> The couple had no children.Template:Cn

Death

Kneller died of fever in 1723 at Great Queen Street and his remains were interred at Twickenham. He had been a churchwarden at St Mary's, Twickenham, when the 14th-century nave collapsed in 1713 and was active in the plans for the church's reconstruction by John James.<ref>Memorials of Twickenham Parochial and Topographical, R.S. Cobbett, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1872</ref> His widow was buried at Twickenham on 11 December 1729.<ref name="cb" />

Legacy

Template:Quotebox A memorial was erected in Westminster Abbey.<ref name="cb" /> Kneller's will gave a pension of £100 a year to his assistant Edward Byng and entrusted Byng with seeing that all unfinished work was completed. Byng also inherited the drawings in Kneller's studio.<ref>Edward Byng at britishmuseum.org, accessed 24 November 2012</ref> Kneller and his wife had no children together.<ref name="cb" /> Most of his fortune was inherited by his grandson, Godfrey Kneller Huckle, who was the son of Agnes Huckle,<ref name="cb" /> Kneller's illegitimate daughter by Mrs Voss,<ref>Template:Royal Collection</ref> and who took his grandfather's surname (Kneller)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as a condition of his inheritance.

The site of the house Kneller built in 1709 in Whitton, near Twickenham, became occupied by the mid-19th century Kneller Hall, home of the Royal Military School of Music.<ref name="cb" />

Works

In his hometown Lübeck there are works to be seen in the St. Annen Museum and in Saint Catherine Church. His former works at St. Mary's Church were destroyed by the Bombing of Lübeck 1942. A large oil portrait (84" x 55") of James VII of Scotland (King James II of England) hangs on the main staircase of private members' club, The Caledonian Club, in Belgravia, London.

A portrait of Queen Anne that belongs to Trinity Hospital in Retford, Nottinghamshire has been attributed to Kneller by the auctioneers Phillips – though it is unsigned. The hospital has a strong connection with Queen Anne, the founder being a first cousin of her grandmother. The portrait was restored and cleaned in 1999.

See also

References

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Further reading

Principal Studies

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Reference books

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