'Worthies of Britain' (Edmund Spenser; Geoffrey Chaucer; John Fletcher; Francis Beaumont)

1 portrait by Francis Kyte

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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'Worthies of Britain' (Edmund Spenser; Geoffrey Chaucer; John Fletcher; Francis Beaumont)

by Francis Kyte, printed and sold by John Bowles
mezzotint, circa 1725-1745
14 in. x 10 1/8 in. (355 mm x 258 mm) plate size; 14 1/4 in. x 10 3/8 in. (363 mm x 264 mm) paper size
Given by Sir Herbert Henry Raphael, 1st Bt, 1913
Reference Collection
NPG D20292

Sittersback to top

Artistsback to top

  • John Bowles (1701?-1779), Printseller and publisher. Artist or producer associated with 118 portraits.
  • Francis Kyte (active 1710-died 1744), Engraver and portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 33 portraits.

Placesback to top

Events of 1725back to top

Current affairs

Notorious 'Thief Taker General' Jonathan Wild is hanged at Tyburn. He ran one of the most successful gangs of thieves of the era, while appearing to be the nation's leading policeman.
Pardoned Jacobite leader Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke forms an opposition to the Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
Order of the Bath is founded by King George I.

Art and science

Poet Alexander Pope produces a new edition of Shakespeare, which he rewrites and edits in numerous places.
Philosopher Francis Hutcheson publishes his first major work An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, published in two treatises concerning aesthetics and morality.

International

Russian tsar Peter the Great dies.
Treaty of Hanover between England, France and Prussia.
Composer Antonio Vivaldi debuts the set of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons.
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach debuts his Easter Oratorio in Leipzig.

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