Contemplation (James Burnett, Lord Monboddo)
17 of 288 portraits by John Kay
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Contemplation (James Burnett, Lord Monboddo)
by John Kay
etching, 1784
5 3/8 in. x 4 1/8 in. (135 mm x 105 mm) plate size; 11 in. x 8 1/8 in. (279 mm x 206 mm) paper size
Given by Henry Witte Martin, 1861
Reference Collection
NPG D16263
Sitterback to top
- James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714-1799), Judge and philosopher. Sitter in 10 portraits.
Artistback to top
- John Kay (1742-1826), Miniature painter and caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 288 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This is a satire on Monboddo's major study, Of the Origin and Progress of Language (1773-92), on which he is shown working. In the first of the six volumes, he controversially studied man as an animal, humanised by civil society and the arts, and maintained that the ape was a class of the human species. The picture hanging behind him of eight naked children with tails refers to his much ridiculed assertion that humans originally had them.
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- John Kay: Portraits of curious characters (15 December 2007 - 13 July 2008)
Events of 1784back to top
Current affairs
Theatre proprietor and postal reformer John Palmer runs the first mail coach in England, between Bristol and London. A three day journey is now completed in 16 hours.Commutation Act reduces punitive duties on tea to combat smuggling.
Art and science
Aeronaut James Sadler makes the first hot air balloon flight in Britain, from Oxford to Woodeaton.Chemist Henry Cavendish's paper Experiments on Air reveals the composition of water.
Writer Samuel Johnson dies.
Joshua Reynolds succeeds Allan Ramsay as Painter to the King.
International
Thomas Jefferson's Land Ordinance passed by the United States' Continental Congress, coming into effect the following year. It allows for the sale of land in the largely unmapped west of the country.Britain receives its first bales of cotton from the United States since before the War of American Independence.
William Pitt's India Act creates a Board of Control to oversee the affairs of the British East India Company and centralise power.
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