Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban
1 portrait of Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban
by Jacobus Houbraken, published by John & Paul Knapton
etching, published 1738
14 3/8 in. x 9 in. (365 mm x 229 mm) plate size; 16 5/8 in. x 11 1/4 in. (423 mm x 285 mm) paper size
Given by Society of Judges and Serjeants-at-Law, 1877
Reference Collection
NPG D39991
Sitterback to top
- Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561-1626), Philosopher and Lord Chancellor. Sitter associated with 63 portraits.
Artistsback to top
- Jacobus Houbraken (1698-1780), Engraver. Artist or producer associated with 435 portraits.
- John & Paul Knapton (active 1735-1789), Booksellers and publishers. Artist or producer associated with 290 portraits.
Events of 1738back to top
Current affairs
Fetter Lane Society founded in London by the Moravians; a reformed group of Protestants led by exiled Saxon Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf. He visits Britain to petition the king for protection for Moravian missionaries working in the British colonies. An act to this effect is finally passed in 1749.John Wesley is converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement.
Art and science
Artist Allan Ramsay returns to London from Rome and sets himself up as a portrait painter.Metallurgist William Champion patents a process to distil zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.
International
Methodist preacher George Whitefield arrives in Savannah, Georgia to replace John Wesley; the first of seven visits across the Atlantic which make him one of the most widely recognised figures in the American colonies.Merchant sailor Robert Jenkins presents his pickled ear (cut off by Spanish coast-guards in Cuba in 1731) to Parliament stirring up war fever against Spain and leading to the War of Jenkins' Ear the following year.
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