Godfrey Kneller

Early life

Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in the Free City of Lübeck, the son of Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter. 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, 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.

For about 20 years (–1702) he lived at No. 1617 The Great Piazza, Covent Garden. 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. 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 on 24 May 1715, 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, 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.

Personal life

He married a widow, Susanna Grave, on 23 January 1704 at St Bride's Church, London. 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. The couple had no children.

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. His widow was buried at Twickenham on 11 December 1729.

Legacy

As to thinking better or worse of mankind from experience, some cunning people will not be satisfied unless they have put men to the test, as they think. There is a very good story told of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in his character of a Justice of the peace. A gentleman brought his servant before him, upon an accusation of having stolen some money from him; but it having come out that he had laid it purposely in the servant's way, in order to try his honesty, Sir Godfrey sent the master to prison.

A memorial was erected in Westminster Abbey. 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. Kneller and his wife had no children together. Most of his fortune was inherited by his grandson, Godfrey Kneller Huckle, who was the son of Agnes Huckle, Kneller's illegitimate daughter by Mrs Voss, and who took his grandfather's surname (Kneller) 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.

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.

Gallery

File:Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) - Princess Anne (1665–1714), Later Queen Anne - 1171125 - National Trust.jpg|Princess Anne, 1683 File:King James II by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg|Portrait of James II of England, 1684 File:GodfreyKneller-IsaacNewton-1689.jpg|Portrait of Isaac Newton, 1689 File:WilliamIII.jpg|William III, 1690 File:John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg|Earl of Marlborough, c. 1690 File:Portrait of the Earl of Athlone.jpg|Portrait of Godert de Ginkel, 1st Earl of Athlone, c. 1692 File:HortenseManciniGodfreyKneller.jpg|Portrait of Hortense Mancini, 1693 File:JohnLocke.png|Portrait of John Locke, 1697 File:Peter I by Kneller.jpg|Peter the Great, 1698 File:Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg|Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, c. 1702 File:James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg|James Stanhope, c. 1710 File:Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller 1711.jpg|Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren, 1711

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Godfried & Johan Zacharias Kneller biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature

References

1. {{Cite Collins. Kneller
2. [[George Cokayne. Cokayne, George Edward]] (1906) ''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924092524416 Complete Baronetage]''. Volume V. Exeter: W. Pollard & Co. {{LCCN. 06023564. pp. 27–28
3. Stewart, J. Douglas. (2004). "Kneller, Sir Godfrey, baronet (1646–1723)".
4. (1967). "Chambers's Encyclopedia". Pergamon Press.
5. Winn, J.A.. (1992). ""When beauty fires the blood": love and the arts in the age of Dryden". [[University of Michigan Press]].
6. Chilvers, I.. (2017). "The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists". OUP Oxford.
7. "The Piazza: Notable private residents in the Piazza". Institute of Historical Reseacrh, University of London.
8. [https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-godfrey-kneller-310#:~:text=In%201684-5%20Kneller%20was,from%20the%20University%20of%20Oxford. Godfrey Kneller biography], tate.org.uk. Accessed 7 January 2023.
9. See e.g. Addison's poem [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o4226-w0020.shtml "To Sir GODFREY KNELLER, on his PICTURE of the KING"], eighteenthcenturypoetry.org. Accessed 7 January 2023.
10. (May 2010). "Horsham Museum Guidebook". Horsham District Council.
11. "Who’s Buried Where in London (p. 240)".
12. [https://books.google.com/books?id=N1wJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA402 Memorials of Twickenham Parochial and Topographical, R.S. Cobbett, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1872]
13. Boswell, James. (1791). "The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order; a Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published. The Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great-Britain, for Near Half a Century, During which He Flourished". Printed by Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly.
14. [https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=130418 Edward Byng] at britishmuseum.org, accessed 24 November 2012
15. {{Royal Collection. 663234. Miss Agnes Voss, daughter of Mrs Voss and Sir Godfrey Kneller, afterwards Mrs Huckle
16. (1730). "Godfrey Kneller Huckle: enabling him to take the surname Kneller".