Rowland Hill
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Rowland Hill
by John Russell
pastel, circa 1780
12 1/4 in. x 9 3/4 in. (311 mm x 248 mm)
Given by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, 1st Bt, 1907
Primary Collection
NPG 1464
Artistback to top
- John Russell (1745-1806), Portrait painter and pastellist. Artist or producer associated with 102 portraits, Sitter associated with 6 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This incisive pastel sketch by Russell was probably made during a stay at the Hill's home in Shropshire in 1780. The area of white-blue pastel around the sitter's head gives him a spiritual appearance.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Ingamells, John, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, 2004, p. 256
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 303
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, Shropshire (probably sitter's home, Shropshire)
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Late Eighteenth Century Prints and Drawings (17 April 2004 - 5 September 2004)
Events of 1780back to top
Current affairs
Anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on Parliament to protest against the Catholic Relief Act, leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots in London. Six days of rioting are ended by the intervention of troops, with 285 people shot dead.Dunning's Motion in Parliament attacks the influence of the crown, suggesting that it has increased and ought to be diminished.
Art and science
Royal Academy moves to Somerset House on The Strand, London.Mrs E. Johnson's British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, the first Sunday newspaper in Britain, begins publication.
Potter Josiah Wedgwood invents the pyrometer; a device used for measuring high temperatures.
International
American War of Independence: British troops under Charles Cornwallis defeat American army under Horatio Gates at Camden, South Carolina. The capture of British army officer and spy John André yields proof that US general Benedict Arnold is in the pay of the British. André is executed in as a spy.Second Anglo-Mysore War in India between Hyder Ali and the East India Company.
Bolshoi Theatre of opera and ballet is founded in Moscow.
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