James Boswell

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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James Boswell

by George Dance
pencil, crayon and wash, 1793
10 in. x 7 1/4 in. (254 mm x 184 mm)
Purchased, 1898
Primary Collection
NPG 1139

Sitterback to top

  • James Boswell (1740-1795), Biographer of Dr Johnson. Sitter associated with 16 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • George Dance (1741-1825), Architect and portrait draughtsman. Artist or producer associated with 322 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

Related worksback to top

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Events of 1793back to top

Current affairs

Whig MP Charles Grey enters a motion for parliamentary reform but is defeated in the House of Commons.

Art and science

Radical philosopher William Godwin publishes Political Justice, an inflamatory document that promoted rational anarchism. This crystallised a wider feeling that a new era of world peace and progress was beginning.
Sir William Beechey is appointed Portrait Painter to her Majesty, Queen Charlotte.

International

Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette are executed and the Reign of Terror begins.
France declares war on Britain, Holland and then Spain. William Pitt addresses the House of Commons and Britain hesitantly joins the first coalition of anti-revolutionary European states to oppose the French threat.
Attack on Corsica in which Captain Horatio Nelson loses an eye.

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