The Treacherous Patriot Unmask'd (William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath)

1 portrait of William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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The Treacherous Patriot Unmask'd (William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath)

by Unknown artist
mezzotint, published 1742
10 3/8 in. x 7 1/2 in. (265 mm x 190 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D9351

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Unknown artist, Artist. Artist or producer associated with 6578 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This biting satire - The Treacherous Patriot Unmask'd (1742) - attacked Pulteney for refusing to accept command for a third time. With his public face slipped to reveal a devil behind the civic mask, this print says much about the way polite, oil portraiture could be read as flattering and misleading propaganda.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Schama, Simon, The Face of Britain: The Nation Through its Portraits, 2015-09-15, p. 80

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

Events of 1742back to top

Current affairs

Robert Walpole resigns as Prime Minister following the scandal surrounding the alleged rigging of the Chippenham by-election. He is made 1st Earl of Orford. Carteret administration formed with Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington as Prime Minister.

Art and science

Composer George Frideric Handel's Messiah is first performed at The Great Music Hall in Dublin.
Ranelagh Gardens opens in Chelsea.
Writer Edmond Hoyle publishes the definitive rules of whist.
James Bradley succeeds Edmond Halley as Astronomer Royal.
Painter Charles Jervas' translation of Don Quixote is posthumously published.

International

War of the Austrian Succession: Treaty of Berlin, mediated by Britain, is signed by Maria Theresa of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia, ending the First Silesian War. George II acts as guarantor.
Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius proposes 100 degrees between the freezing and boiling points of water.

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