1649-1723 Dutch (Resident in UK) Sir Godfrey Kneller Galleries was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I. His major works include The Chinese Convert (1687); a series of four portraits of Isaac Newton painted at various junctures of the latter's life; a series of ten reigning European monarchs, including King Louis XIV of France; over 40 "Kit-cat portraits" of members of the Kit-Cat Club; and ten "beauties" of the court of William III, to match a similar series of ten beauties of the court of Charles II painted by his predecessor as court painter, Sir Peter Lely. Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Kneller's Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Kneller's finest portraits.Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in L??beck, Germany. Kneller studied in Leiden, but became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol and Rembrandt in Amsterdam. He worked in Rome and Venice in the early 1670s, painting historical subjects and portraits, and later moved to Hamburg. He came to England in 1674, at the invitation of the Duke of Monmouth, accompanied by his brother, John Zacharias Kneller, who was an ornamental painter. He was introduced to, and painted a portrait of, Charles II. In England, Kneller concentrated almost entirely on portraiture. 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 appointed Principal Painter to the Crown by Charles II. In the 1690s, Kneller painted the Hampton Court Beauties depicting the most glamorous ladies-in-waiting of the Royal Court for which he received his knighthood from William III. He produced a series of "Kit-cat" portraits of 48 leading politicians and men of letters, members of the Kit-Cat Club. Created a baronet by King George I, he was also head of the Kneller Academy of Painting and Drawing 1711-1716 in Great Queen Street, London. His paintings were praised by Whig luminaries such as John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and Alexander Pope. Kneller died of fever in 1723 and his remains were interred in Twickenham Church (he was a churchwarden there when the 14th century nave collapsed in 1713 and was involved in the plans for its reconstruction). The site of the house he built in 1709 in Whitton near Twickenham is now occupied by the mid-19th century Kneller Hall, home of the Royal Military School of Music   Related Paintings of Sir Godfrey Kneller :. | Dorothy Mason | Edward and Lady Mary Howard | Isaac Newton | Self portrait | Duchess of Dorset |
Related Artists:
Thomas Patch
1725 - 1782 was an English painter, engraver and caricaturist. He made a living by basing himself in Italy and undertaking commissions from rich young British men on Grand tours.His paintings today are in the Royal Collection and various museums. Patch was thrown out of Rome for a homosexual act. Patch was born in Exeter in 1725, the son of a doctor. He had not completed his medical studies when he came to Rome in 1747 as a grand tourist and where he met Joshua Reynolds. Initially he worked for Joseph Vernet, creating landscapes of Tivoli and pastiches of Vernet's work. He was forced to leave Rome after some homosexual He was in Florence in 1755, where he was commissioned to paint people on their Grand tours. Here he was assisted by his friendship with Sir Horace Mann, who was the British envoy and therefore a point of contact with British tourists arriving in Florence. While there he completed studies of human physiognomy, looking at the expressions and facial types as well as completing portraits of many in the British society in Florence. He also studied the old masters and published studies of them. Towards the end of his life his output of paintings slowed.Patch was also known to be an art dealer. In about 1763, Patch completed three views of Florence that are now part of the Royal Collection. They are thought to have been bought by George III. On October 19, 1767, he was enterprising enough to witness the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius which he painted from both the land and the sea.
Martin, Henri
French Post-Impressionist Painter, 1860-1943 French painter. After winning the Grand Prix at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, he moved to Paris (1879) to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts there under Jean-Paul Laurens, who encouraged his interest in Veronese and other Venetian painters. The literary inspiration of his early work was reflected in such paintings as Paolo de Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini in Hell (1883; Carcassonne, Mus. B.-A.) based on Dante, for which he won a medal at the Salon of 1883. During his subsequent study in Rome, however, on a fellowship awarded to him at the Salon,
Bernardo Lopez
1801-1874 Spanish Bernardo Lopez Gallery