Adam Smith

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Adam Smith

by John Kay
etching, 1790
5 5/8 in. x 3 5/8 in. (142 mm x 93 mm) plate size; 7 1/8 in. x 5 3/8 in. (182 mm x 137 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D16843

Sitterback to top

  • Adam Smith (1723-1790), Political economist. Sitter in 6 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • John Kay (1742-1826), Miniature painter and caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 288 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1790back to top

Current affairs

Attempts to modify the Test and Corporation Acts are defeated, despite campaigning by dissenters such as the prominent Unitarian preacher and pamphleteer, Richard Price. The Acts prevented those outside the established church from holding government or military office.

Art and science

Joseph Mallord William Turner exhibits his first painting at the Royal Academy; a watercolour of The Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth.
The Firth to Clyde and Oxford to Birmingham canals are begun.

International

Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France. A landmark work of opposition to the Revolution which offered a critique of the radical philosophy behind events in France; the Reflections have been read as an articulation of the foundations of modern British conservatism. George Vancouver explores the north west coast of America.

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