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George Frideric Handel
1 of 36 portraits of George Frideric Handel
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© National Portrait Gallery, London
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George Frideric Handel
attributed to Balthasar Denner
oil on canvas, feigned oval, 1726-1728
29 1/2 in. x 24 5/8 in. (749 mm x 626 mm)
Given by Arthur Frederick Hill, 1923
Primary Collection
NPG 1976
On display in Room 9 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery
Artistback to top
- Balthasar Denner (1685-1749), Artist. Artist or producer associated with 2 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This picture was probably painted for Handel by Balthasar Denner, a fellow German. It is thought to be the earliest portrait of the composer. 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
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 277
Events of 1726back to top
Current affairs
Mary Toft allegedly gives birth to sixteen rabbits in Godalming Surrey and becomes the subject of considerable controversy, involving the King's own physician Nathaniel St Andre. The story is later revealed to be a hoax.The Craftsman, a polemical political periodical, is launched by opposition leaders Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke and William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath.
Art and science
St Martin-in-the-Fields church in London is completed to the design of the architect James Gibbs.Jonathan Swift publishes his bitterly satirical Gulliver's Travels.
Poet Alexander Pope produces an English language translation of Homer's Odyssey.
Poet Allan Ramsay opens the first circulating library in Edinburgh.
International
French writer Voltaire begins an exile in England which lasts three years.City of Montevideo is founded by the Spanish in Uruguay.
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