George Cumberland
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
George Cumberland
by Unknown artist
enamel on copper, circa 1784
1 5/8 in. (41 mm) diameter
Purchased, 1977
Primary Collection
NPG 5162
Linked publicationsback to top
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 159
- Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 139
Events of 1784back to top
Current affairs
Theatre proprietor and postal reformer John Palmer runs the first mail coach in England, between Bristol and London. A three day journey is now completed in 16 hours.Commutation Act reduces punitive duties on tea to combat smuggling.
Art and science
Aeronaut James Sadler makes the first hot air balloon flight in Britain, from Oxford to Woodeaton.Chemist Henry Cavendish's paper Experiments on Air reveals the composition of water.
Writer Samuel Johnson dies.
Joshua Reynolds succeeds Allan Ramsay as Painter to the King.
International
Thomas Jefferson's Land Ordinance passed by the United States' Continental Congress, coming into effect the following year. It allows for the sale of land in the largely unmapped west of the country.Britain receives its first bales of cotton from the United States since before the War of American Independence.
William Pitt's India Act creates a Board of Control to oversee the affairs of the British East India Company and centralise power.
Comments back to top
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Stewart Johnson
27 May 2021, 16:48
Richard Collins (1755-1831) painted George Cumberland's portrait and this is probably the above tiny circular miniature which was discussed in 1779 in a letter between the sitter and his brother, Richard Cumberland(1). The subject was then 25 years old. It was through the Royal Academy that Richard Collins struck up a friendship with Cumberland, whom Collins had followed as a student at the RA Schools and, according to Whitley (2), later became his pupil. Correspondence between the two has survived and is now in the British Library (3).