Sir Kenelm Digby

1 portrait of Sir Kenelm Digby

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir Kenelm Digby

after Sir Anthony van Dyck
line engraving, circa 1788-1793 (1630s)
7 1/2 in. x 4 1/4 in. (190 mm x 108 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D16557

Sitterback to top

  • Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665), Naval commander, diplomat and scientist. Sitter in 24 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 1023 portraits, Sitter associated with 30 portraits.

Portrait setback to top

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1788back to top

Current affairs

Parliament begins an investigation into the slave trade, led by reformers Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce.
Regency Crisis; George III's madness is announced provoking a political storm.
Former Governor-General of Bengal Warren Hastings' trial begins before the House of Lords.
Henry Benedict Stuart becomes the new Stuart claimant to the British throne.

Art and science

Artist Thomas Gainsborough dies.
First edition of The Times newspaper is published in London.
Scottish engineer and inventor William Symington demonstrates the first paddle steamer on Dalswinton Loch near Dumfries.
Robert Burns writes his version of the Scots poem Auld Lang Syne.

International

Ministers of the French King, Louis XVI, reluctantly announce that the Estates General will meet the following year, for the first time since 1614.
United States constitution comes into force when New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it.
First Fleet reaches Australia, anchoring in Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip, selecting a suitable site for the first Australian penal colony, names the place Sydney Cove.

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Prof. Patricia Simons

14 August 2018, 23:38

This is much later than the 1630s. It is ultimately based on Voerst's engraved portrait of Digby after a van Dyck painting of 1633-35 (cut before 1641 for van Dyck's Icones: the NPG has four impressions, D27874, D19100, D16555 and D16556, but see British Museum 1888,0612.18 for information). But that view went through several iterations, including NPG D35202 and D35203 in reverse of Voerst’s print and thus facing left as did the original painting and as does this even later print. The immediate source for this late version is NPG D16450 (also facing left, dated on the plate 1654; for the original plate and its separation see BM 2006,U.446 and P,3.225). The line running across the print suggests that the lower portion was a later addition. The life-span of the print dealer John Thane, who is named as the owner of the autograph signature, was 1747?-1818 according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, so this version was produced around 1767 at the very earliest, and before Thane’s death in May 1818.