4 OF 5 
Anne Killigrew
4 of 5 portraits by Anne Killigrew
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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Anne Killigrew
by Isaac Beckett, published by John Smith, after Anne Killigrew
mezzotint, published circa 1683-1729
9 1/2 in. x 7 1/2 in. (240 mm x 190 mm) plate size; with 5 mm margins
Purchased, 1944
Reference Collection
NPG D11896
Sitterback to top
- Anne Killigrew (1660-1685), Poet and painter. Sitter associated with 7 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.
Artistsback to top
- Isaac Beckett (1652 or 1653-1688), Engraver. Artist or producer associated with 184 portraits.
- Anne Killigrew (1660-1685), Poet and painter. Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits, Sitter associated with 7 portraits.
- John Smith (1652-1743), Engraver. Artist or producer associated with 1181 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Rideal, Liz, Insights: Self-portraits, 2005, p. 86 Read entry
In Restoration London, even with wealth, education and connections, it would have been an achievement both to compose poetry and paint pictures. Anne Killigrew was obviously precocious and confident, as making a self-portrait is a conscious gesture of potential public self-exposure that was unusual for a woman at that time. She died aged twenty-five, leaving in her desire for recognition a short verse for her epitaph: ‘When I am Dead, few Friends attend my Hearse,/ And for a Monument, I leave my verse.’
Events of 1683back to top
Current affairs
Rye House Plot, a conspiracy to murder the king and his heir, James, Duke of York, is leaked to the government by minor conspirator, Josiah Keeling. Arrests follow; some conspirators are executed, others pardoned while several flee the country.Worst ever recorded frost in England freezes the Thames.
Art and science
England's first public museum, the Ashmolean Museum, is opened by Oxford University to house a substantial collection donated by the Antiquary, Elias Ashmole.International
Financial constraints forces Charles II to decide to relinquish Tangiers, an English possession since 1661, unable to continue its defence against the Moors. Admiral, George Legge, Baron Dartmouth, is commissioned to oversee the port's demolition. Diarist, Samuel Pepys accompanies Dartmouth as his secretary during the expedition.Comments back to top
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