Alexander Pope

1 portrait matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Double portraits'

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Alexander Pope

attributed to Charles Jervas
oil on canvas, circa 1713-1715
70 in. x 50 in. (1778 mm x 1270 mm)
Purchased, 1860
Primary Collection
NPG 112

Sitterback to top

  • Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Poet. Sitter associated with 46 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Charles Jervas (1675-1739), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 40 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Charles Jervas's portrait, in which the poet strikes his favourite meditative pose, was painted just as Pope had begun his translation of Homer's Iliad. The unusual composition may refer to the conflict between fame, represented by the bust of Homer in the top-left corner, and private friendship, symbolised by the figure of the woman who may be a portrait of Pope's close friend Martha Blount. More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

Linked publicationsback to top

Events of 1713back to top

Current affairs

An ailing Queen Anne is unable to attend a thanksgiving ceremony at St. Paul's in July to celebrate the treaty of Utrecht, attended by both Houses of Parliament in full state.
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, on self-imposed exile on the continent, is joined by his wife, Sarah Churchill.

Art and science

Literary fraternity, the Scriblerus Club is founded. Consisting of satirists, including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and Thomas Parnell, the club ridiculed current trends in scholarship and culture through the fictitious literary character, Martinus Scriblerus.
Joseph Addison's play, Cato, premieres at Drury Lane and becomes an immediate success.

International

Treaty of Utrecht, principally conceived by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Henry, St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, ends the War of the Spanish Succession against France. The accord establishes Bourbon, Philip d'Anjou, on the Spanish throne, with provisos, and forces Louis XIV to recognise a Hanoverian succession in Britain.

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