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Unknown sitter formerly called Sir James Thornhill

8 of 54 portraits by Joseph Highmore

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Unknown sitter formerly called Sir James Thornhill

by Joseph Highmore
etching, 1723
Reference Collection
NPG D2944

Sitterback to top

  • Sir James Thornhill (1675 or 1676-1734), Father-in-law of William Hogarth, decorative painter and politician; MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Sitter associated with 14 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 23 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 54 portraits.

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1723back to top

Current affairs

Exiled Jacobite leader Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke is pardoned and allowed to return to London from Paris.
Workhouse Test Act under which poor relief claimants have to enter a workhouse.
Black Act makes poaching a capital offence.


Art and science

Architect Christopher Wren dies.
Artist Joshua Reynolds is born in Plympton, Devon.
Portrait-painter Godfrey Kneller dies.
Philosopher Bernard de Mandeville republishes his celebrated Fable of the Bees with new essays on charity and the nature of society. They are vigorously combated and made the subject of prosecution in 1729.


International

Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, agrees that Hungary shall be ruled as a separate kingdom within his empire.
Treaty of Charlottenburg signed between Britain and Prussia, which arranges for George I's grandson to marry a Prussian princess and Prince Frederick of Prussia to marry the Prince of Wales' daughter. It is never enacted.

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