William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford
3 of 27 portraits by Christian Friedrich Zincke
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford
by Christian Friedrich Zincke
enamel on copper, circa 1740-1745
1 3/4 in. x 1 3/8 in. (45 mm x 35 mm) oval
Purchased, 1985
Primary Collection
NPG 5796
Sitterback to top
- William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford (1717-1781), Statesman. Sitter in 6 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Christian Friedrich Zincke (1684?-1767), Artist. Artist or producer associated with 27 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Ingamells, John, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, 2004, p. 402
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 528
- Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 61 Read entry
The meticulous enamel portraits painted by Zincke were much admired at Court where, we are told by Vertue, he was expressly commanded by their majesties 'to make the King's picture young, not above 25 - and the Queen's not above 28 ... a mistery to posterity' (George Vertue's Notebooks, Walpole Society Journal, XVIII-XXX, III, p 58). The two Zincke portraits here show Cumberland and Rochford both wearing scarlet coats embellished with gold-braid oak leaves, emblems of Hanoverian victory after the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.
Events of 1740back to top
Current affairs
The song Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne is performed for the first time at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales.A now discredited account by antiquarian William Stukely asserts that Stonehenge was built by druids.
Art and science
Samuel Richardson publishes the first two volumes of Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, the best-selling novel of the period.Artists Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough both arrive in London. Reynolds is apprenticed to the leading portrait-painter Thomas Hudson, while Gainsborough begins his artistic training with the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Francois Gravelot.
International
Death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and the succession of his eldest daughter Maria Térèsa heralds the start of the War of the Austrian Succession. Britain, already fighting Spain (in the War of Jenkin's Ear), is drawn into the wider conflict as an ally of Austria until 1748.Frederick II becomes King of Prussia.
Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII as the 247th pope.
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