Unknown man, formerly known as Edward Young
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Unknown man, formerly known as Edward Young
by Unknown artist
oil on panel, 1770s?
10 1/4 in. x 8 1/8 in. (260 mm x 206 mm) oval, uneven
Purchased, 1899
Primary Collection
NPG 1244
This portraitback to top
As a likeness NPG 1244 is empty and the identification as Young doubtful. In pose it somewhat resembles those derivative engravings which became current in the later 1770s, appearing in Bell's British Poets, 1777, and Johnson's editions of the poets. An inscription in an early 19th-century hand gives a brief biography of Young on the back of the panel. 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. 328
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 695
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'Townshend duties' on imports into the colonies are repealed, except for the duty on tea.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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