Thomas Birch
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Thomas Birch
by Unknown artist
oil on canvas, circa 1735
35 3/4 in. x 27 3/4 in. (908 mm x 705 mm)
Transferred from The British Museum, London, 1879
Primary Collection
NPG 522
This portraitback to top
One of the few known portraits of the historian, Thomas Birch, showing him in the act of writing, with two volumes on the table. It was given to the British Museum at an early date.
More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).
Linked publicationsback to top
- Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 21
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 57
Events of 1735back to top
Current affairs
Second Parliament under George III. Robert Walpole maintains a substantial majority. Lord Bolingbroke gives up active opposition to Walpole and retires to France. Walpole moves into 10 Downing Street.Welsh Methodist revival begins.
Art and science
Celebrated dandy Richard 'Beau' Nash appoints himself Master of Ceremonies at Tunbridge Wells.William Hogarth founds the second St Martin's Lane Academy of Painting.
Lawyer and amateur meteorologist George Hadley publishes the first explanation of the trade winds
International
Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus publishes a 'system of nature', capable of classifying all living things.Swedish chemist Georg Brandt discovers a new metallic element, which he names cobalt.
A revivalist movement in America, led by Jonathan Edwards, becomes known as the Great Awakening.
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach debuts his Ascension Oratorio in Leipzig.
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