Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbé et Seigneur de Brantôme
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbé et Seigneur de Brantôme
by Jakob van der Schley
line engraving, 1740
4 5/8 in. x 2 3/4 in. (117 mm x 71 mm) plate size
Given by the daughter of compiler William Fleming MD, Mary Elizabeth Stopford (née Fleming), 1931
Reference Collection
NPG D25651
Sitterback to top
- Pierre de Bourdeille, Abbé et Seigneur de Brantôme (1540-1614), Soldier, writer. Sitter in 1 portrait.
Events of 1740back to top
Current affairs
The song Rule, Britannia! by Thomas Arne is performed for the first time at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales.A now discredited account by antiquarian William Stukely asserts that Stonehenge was built by druids.
Art and science
Samuel Richardson publishes the first two volumes of Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, the best-selling novel of the period.Artists Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough both arrive in London. Reynolds is apprenticed to the leading portrait-painter Thomas Hudson, while Gainsborough begins his artistic training with the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Francois Gravelot.
International
Death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and the succession of his eldest daughter Maria Térèsa heralds the start of the War of the Austrian Succession. Britain, already fighting Spain (in the War of Jenkin's Ear), is drawn into the wider conflict as an ally of Austria until 1748.Frederick II becomes King of Prussia.
Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII as the 247th pope.
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