Thomas Elder

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Thomas Elder

by John Kay
etching, 1790
5 1/8 in. x 3 1/8 in. (131 mm x 78 mm) plate size; 10 1/4 in. x 7 7/8 in. (261 mm x 200 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D20506

Sitterback to top

  • Thomas Elder (1737-1799), Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Sitter in 2 portraits.

Artistback to top

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

Placesback 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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