George Berkeley
1 portrait
George Berkeley
by John Smibert
oil on canvas, 1730
40 in. x 29 1/2 in. (1016 mm x 749 mm)
Given by Rev. William Josiah Irons, 1882
Primary Collection
NPG 653
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This portraitback to top
The Irish philosopher George Berkeley was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and taught there from 1707. He was appointed Dean of Derry in 1724 and made Bishop of Cloyne in 1734. Berkeley took a missionary party to America in 1728 but failed to secure promised government funds to found a missionary college in the Bermudas and so returned home four years later. John Smibert, who made this portrait, accompanied Berkeley to America and settled there. The background is thought to show the Hanging Rock, Rhode Island, where Berkeley wrote his Alciphron (1732).
Linked publicationsback to top
- Cullen, Fintan, The Irish Face: Redefining the Irish Portrait, 2004, p. 127
- Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 17
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 52
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