James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave
1 portrait of James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave
by Gustaf Lundberg
pastel, circa 1738-1740
27 1/4 in. x 21 3/8 in. (692 mm x 543 mm)
Purchased, 1920
Primary Collection
NPG 1875
This portraitback to top
Lundberg probably met British ambassador James Waldegrave through Carl-Gustav Tessin. This image was made using a wet pastel technique, in which pastel powder was mixed with a liquid, such as gum or water, and applied with a brush or the artist's fingers. Skilled pastellists were appreciated in France and Lundberg became spectacularly successful. The French King even overlooked Lundberg's Protestant faith to admit him to the exclusive Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1741. More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).
Linked publicationsback to top
- Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 289
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 637
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- The Art of Drawing: Portraits from the Collection, 1670-1780 (19 October 2012 - 19 May 2013)
Events of 1738back to top
Current affairs
Fetter Lane Society founded in London by the Moravians; a reformed group of Protestants led by exiled Saxon Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf. He visits Britain to petition the king for protection for Moravian missionaries working in the British colonies. An act to this effect is finally passed in 1749.John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement.
Art and science
Artist Allan Ramsay returns to London from Rome and sets himself up as a portrait painter.Metallurgist William Champion patents a process to distil zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.
International
Methodist preacher George Whitefield arrives in Savannah, Georgia to replace John Wesley; the first of seven visits across the Atlantic which make him one of the most widely recognised figures in the American colonies.Merchant sailor Robert Jenkins presents his pickled ear (cut off by Spanish coast-guards in Cuba in 1731) to Parliament stirring up war fever against Spain and leading to the War of Jenkins' Ear the following year.
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