William Kent
(1685?-1748), Architect, painter and landscape gardenerEarly Georgian Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter associated with 8 portraits
Artist associated with 4 portraits
Kent came from humble origins, but gained knowledge of the classics when his early patrons took him on a Grand Tour of Italy, spending ten years studying, before being brought home in 1719 by Lord Burlington to decorate the ceilings at Burlington House (now the Royal Academy). One of the leading architects working in the Palladian style, he published Designs of Inigo Jones, 1727, and worked at Houghton, Holkham and Stowe, as well as in London on the Horse Guards and the Treasury Buildings. Kent's garden designs for mansions at Stowe, Rousham and Chiswick combine naturalism with classical allusions. He also illustrated John Gay's Poems, 1720, and James Thomson's Seasons, 1730.
Watch a film clip on the artist from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by William Aikman
oil on canvas, circa 1723-1725
On display in Room 10 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 6063
'A Conversation of Virtuosis...at the Kings Arms'
by Gawen Hamilton
oil on canvas, 1735
On display in Room 10 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 1384
by Bartholomew Dandridge
oil on canvas, circa 1736
NPG 1557
by Alexander Bannerman, after William Aikman
line engraving, published 1762
NPG D3481
by Alexander Bannerman, after William Aikman
line engraving, published 1762
NPG D3482
by Alexander Bannerman, after William Aikman
line engraving, published 1762
NPG D3483
by Alexander Bannerman, after William Aikman
line engraving, published 1762
NPG D3484
by William Aikman, after Alexander Bannerman
line engraving, published 1762
NPG D3485
Links
- Chiswick House, London
- Claremont Landscape Garden, Esher, Surrey
- Ditchley Park, Enstone, Oxfordshire
- Euston Hall, Thetford, Norfolk
- Holkham Hall, Holkham, Norfolk
- Houghton Hall, Houghton, Norfolk
- Kensington Palace, London
- Rousham House, Nr Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire
- Stowe Gardens, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire
- William Kent in the Oxford Index
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