John Simpson

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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John Simpson

by Angelica Kauffmann
oil on canvas, circa 1777
29 in. x 24 in. (737 mm x 610 mm)
Given by Charles Davis, 1908
Primary Collection
NPG 1485

Sitterback to top

  • John Simpson (circa 1738-before 1789). Sitter in 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 23 portraits, Sitter in 9 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Portraits are sometimes about disguise or play-acting. This example shows an eighteenth-century sitter - John Simpson - in theatrical 'van Dyck' style costume with slashed doublet, lace collar and extravagant plumed hat. Such seventeenth-century costume had been popular at fancy-dress parties as well as in portraiture since the 1730s. Here the historic style is contrasted with a sculptured pedestal, with a relief of a grieving woman which reflects the rise of sentimental, neo-classical taste in the 1770s.

Linked publicationsback to top

Events of 1777back to top

Current affairs

Trent and Mersey Canal is completed under the supervision of engineer James Brindley.
Philanthropist and reformer John Howard publishes his study The State of the Prisons in England and Wales.

Art and science

Artist James Barry begins his monumental series of paintings The Progress of Human Culture for the Great Room of the Society of Arts in London. He completes it in 1783.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane Theatre.
Entrepreneur William Bass establishes the Bass Brewery at Burton upon Trent.

International

American War of Independence: George Washington, heavily defeated at the Battle of Brandywine, is forced to relinquish Philadelphia to the British under General William Howe. At the two Battles of Saratoga only weeks later General John Burgoyne is forced to surrender to the Americans, marking a turning point in the war. The Continental Congress agrees the final version of the Articles of Confederation, defining the terms on which states join the Union.

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