Peg Woffington ('Mrs Margaret Woffington in the character of Mrs Ford in the Merry Wives of Windsor')

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Peg Woffington ('Mrs Margaret Woffington in the character of Mrs Ford in the Merry Wives of Windsor')

by John Faber Jr, after Edward Haytley
mezzotint, published 1745
18 3/8 in. x 11 7/8 in. (468 mm x 303 mm) paper size
Acquired, 1960
Reference Collection
NPG D36313

Sitterback to top

Artistsback to top

  • John Faber Jr (circa 1695-1756), Engraver and portrait and miniature painter. Artist or producer associated with 818 portraits.
  • Edward Haytley (active 1740-1764), Portrait and landscape painter. Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.

Events of 1745back to top

Current affairs

Second Jacobite Rebellion: the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie') lands in Scotland and proclaims his father king. Jacobite forces take Edinburgh and march into England as far as Derby but are forced to turn back due to lack of support.
The song later to become the British national anthem, God Save the King, is first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in a setting by Thomas Arne.

Art and science

William Hogarth completes the six paintings of Marriage-à-la-Mode, his satirical take on upper-class eighteenth-century society.
West towers of Westminster Abbey are completed
Satirical writer Jonathan Swift dies.

International

War of the Austrian Succession: the French army defeat Austrian, Dutch and British forces under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy.
Madame de Pompadour becomes mistress to Louis XV of France.
Principle of the Leyden jar is discovered by German physicist, Ewald Georg von Kleist.
Artist Giovanni Batista Piranesi publishes the first of his Vedute (Views); a celebrated series of etchings of Rome.

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