Elizabeth Vesey
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Elizabeth Vesey
by Unknown artist
black crayon with touches of sepia and grey wash, circa 1770
9 3/8 in. x 7 7/8 in. (238 mm x 200 mm)
Given by G.F. Gilmour, 1942
Primary Collection
NPG 3131
Linked publicationsback to top
- Eger, Elizabeth; Peltz, Lucy, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March to 15 June 2008), p. 22 Read entry
Elizabeth Vesey was known by her friends as the 'Sylph', an allusion to her girlish figure and flirtatious wit. In 1781 Elizabeth Montagu wrote to Vesey, 'We have lived with the wisest, the best and the most celebrated men of our Times, and with some of the best, most accomplished, most learned Women of any times.'
- Ingamells, John, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, 2004, p. 466
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 633
Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top
- Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings (13 March 2008 - 15 June 2008)
Events of 1770back to top
Current affairs
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford.Art and science
Oliver Goldsmith publishes his poem The Deserted Village.Philosopher and politician Edmund Burke publishes Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents discussing the limits of the King's authority.
17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret.
Thomas Gainsborough paints his portrait of Jonathan Buttall, which later becomes known as The Blue Boy.
International
'Townshend duties' on imports into the colonies are repealed, except for the duty on tea. However, this concession is soon followed by the Boston Massacre, in which British troops fire into an unruly crowd in Boston, killing five.Captain Cook reaches the eastern coast of Australia, at a place which he names Botany Bay. He discovers the Great Barrier Reef when HMS Endeavour runs onto it. Cook claims New South Wales for the British.
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