Francis Atterbury

This portraitback to top

A copy, probably posthumous, [1] from Kneller’s half-length portrait of 1718 at Christ Church, Oxford, [2] of which there are also studio versions in the Bodleian Library; [3] the Westminster Deanery, and at Cirencester. [4] According to Horace Walpole, Alexander Pope owned an original Kneller portrait of Atterbury, of which James Worsdale made five or six copies. [5]

Footnotesback to top

1) Report on file from V. J. Murrell 1975, who very tentatively proposed an attribution to Cross (d. 1724) or Meyer (d. 1789).
2) Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, III, p 55, no.139; J. Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835, catalogue, 1981, p 103, illus.; J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.65 as signed and dated 1718; exhibited Art Treasures, Manchester, 1857, British Portrait Gallery 262; Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits ( ... William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867, no.106; engraved J. Simon 1718 (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 19 as painted in 1718); M. van der Gucht.
3) Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford, I, p 94, no.233; Catalogue of Portraits in the Bodleian Library by Mrs R. L. Poole completely revised and expanded by K. Garlick, 2004, p 10; J. Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835, catalogue, 1981, p 103.
4) Earl Bathurst, Catalogue of the Bathurst Collection …, 1908, pp.74-75, illus.; J. Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835, catalogue, 1981, p 103.
5) J. Prior, Edmond Malone, 1860, p 385.

Referenceback to top

Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 22.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by Alfred Jones 1924.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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