John Benbow

This portraitback to top

A copy from the Kneller portrait in the National Maritime Museum (BHC 2546) which is signed and inscribed by Kneller Vice Admiral of the Blue, suggesting a date of 1701. [1] NPG 2950, an 18th-century copy, was accepted in 1865 for the ‘reference portfolios’ but, according to the NPG number, it had been listed with the main collection by 1936.
A chalk preparatory sketch by Kneller was exhibited in London in 2002. [2] A half-length oval version was engraved H. R. Cook 1808 ‘from an original Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller in the collection of the late Admiral Sir Peter Denis’.

Footnotesback to top

1) J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.86 as c.1700. Presented to the Greenwich Hospital by George IV 1824; Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits ( ... William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867, no.17; engraved W. H. Mote 1831. A copy by Gerhard Bockman is in the Royal Collection (O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1963, no.387).
2) Sotheby’s, 16 July 1987, lot 26; exhibited Historical Portraits, The British Face, Nov.-Dec. 2002, no.25, illus.

Referenceback to top

Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 49.

Provenanceback to top

Presented by John Warwick of London 1865.

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