George Vertue

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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George Vertue

by George Vertue
pencil and red chalk, 1741
9 1/4 in. x 5 1/2 in. (235 mm x 140 mm)
Purchased, 1972
Primary Collection
NPG 4876

Sitterback to top

  • George Vertue (1683-1756), Engraver and antiquary. Sitter in 7 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 865 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • George Vertue (1683-1756), Engraver and antiquary. Artist or producer associated with 865 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This self-portrait was probably intended for an engraving to attract a royal patron. Vertue highlights his skill as an artist by pointing to his own engraving of the 'Chandos' portrait of Shakespeare . He holds a miniature of his patron Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford. The bust of Charles I, a famous royal patron of the arts, and motto which translates as 'Honour nourishes the arts' topped with the Prince of Wales's feathers suggests that this image was intended to appeal to Frederick, Prince of Wales. A space has been left for lettering to promote Vertue's project but the design was never completed. 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

  • Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 286
  • Pointon, Marcia, Hanging the head : portraiture and social formation in eighteenth-¿century England, 1993, p. 58 number 73
  • Rogers, Malcolm, Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, 1993 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 August to 23 October 1994), p. 41
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 633

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1741back to top

Current affairs

Motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Robert Walpole is followed by a general election. Walpole's majority is reduced to less than twenty and he suffers defeat in seven divisions.
Opening of the Foundling Hospital, London, to aid homeless and abandoned children.

Art and science

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown is appointed head gardener at Stowe, where he works with the architect William Kent.
Actor David Garrick makes his debut on the London stage in Richard III.
Henry Fielding publishes An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews satirising Samuel Richardson's best-selling novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded.

International

War of the Austrian Succession: Admiral Edward Vernon leads an unsuccessful attack on Spanish stronghold of Cartagena. Frederick II's Prussian army defeats the Austrians at Mollwitz, securing his hold on most of Silesia. French and Bavarian forces enter Prague.
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach publishes his set of Goldberg Variations, supposedly written for performance by the young harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg.

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