Johann Christoph Pepusch
1 portrait
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© National Portrait Gallery, London
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Johann Christoph Pepusch
by Thomas Hudson
oil on canvas, circa 1735
49 3/4 in. x 40 1/8 in. (1264 mm x 1019 mm)
Purchased, 1924
Primary Collection
NPG 2063
Sitterback to top
- Johann Christoph Pepusch (John Christopher Pepusch) (1666 or 1667-1752), Composer and teacher. Sitter in 4 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), Portrait painter and art collector. Artist or producer associated with 182 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Pepusch is shown in his gown as an Oxford Doctor of Music. The portrait is an early work by Thomas Hudson, dating to the 1730s. 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. 210
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 488
- Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 60, 155 Read entry
Carved and gilt, mitred. 4 1⁄ 4 inches wide.
This richly carved running pattern of leaves, paired florettes and husks is a very fine French-inspired design of the 1670s or 1680s. The high quality of the carving suggests a leading London framemaker, perhaps of Huguenot origin. Frames of this type can be found in the Royal Collection and elsewhere.1 On acquisition in 1924 this rather old-fashioned portrait of the court composer J. C. Pepusch was, however, in a centre-and-corner frame; when and why this frame was changed is not recorded.2
1 The frame type can be found on the Lely and studio three-quarter length, James II when Duke of York, c.1665, completed later (Royal Collection, Millar no.240, print from old negative including frame in National Portrait Gallery Archive); the Lely half-length, 2nd Duke of Newport, dated 1676 (Christie's, 26 March 1976, lot 59); the Simon Verelst half-length, Lady Willoughby, perhaps of the 1680s (Grimsthorpe Castle), and the Lely half-length copy, William Wycherley (National Portrait Gallery; the frame cut down).
2 Duplicate of Accounts, vol.IX, p 36.
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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