Robert Wilks

1 portrait by John Ellys

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Robert Wilks

by John Faber Jr, after John Ellys
mezzotint, circa 1732-1733
14 in. x 10 in. (355 mm x 253 mm) plate size; 14 3/8 in. x 10 1/8 in. (364 mm x 257 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D4793

Sitterback to top

  • Robert Wilks (circa 1665-1732), Actor and theatre manager. Sitter in 6 portraits.

Artistsback to top

  • John Ellys (1701-1757), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 27 portraits.
  • John Faber Jr (circa 1695-1756), Engraver and portrait and miniature painter. Artist or producer associated with 818 portraits.

Portrait setback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1732back to top

Current affairs

Secession Church formed in Scotland.
Widespread fraud and abuses in the customs service revealed. Prime Minister Robert Walpole responds with the Excise scheme, under which the tariff on wine and tobacco is to be replaced by an excise tax.
British Hat Act limits manufacturing in the British colonies, forcing colonists to buy imported British-made goods.

Art and science

Frederick, Prince of Wales attends a fancy-dress ball at Vauxhall Gardens, initiating its supremacy as London's most fashionable meeting place.
William Hogarth produces the first prints of A Harlot's Progress, having completed the painted series the previous year.
The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) opens.

International

Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn is born.
Georgia in the American colonies is granted to a group of British philanthropists, to give debtors a new start in life.

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