James Craggs the Younger

James Craggs the Younger, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt, circa 1708, based on a work of circa 1708 -NPG 1134 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

James Craggs the Younger

studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt
circa 1708, based on a work of circa 1708
48 1/2 in. x 39 1/2 in. (1232 mm x 1003 mm)
NPG 1134

Inscriptionback to top

Paper on table inscribed: To/His Catholicke/Majesty/Charles the 3.

This portraitback to top

The inscription on the paper refers to Charles, Archduke of Austria, the favoured British candidate for the Spanish throne until 1711 when he was elected Emperor Charles VI. Craggs was appointed envoy in Spain in 1708 at the age of 22 and NPG 1134 probably marks this appointment; in any case it was painted before 1711.
It is not clear which is Kneller’s original portrait. There is a version at Port Eliot (exhibited Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits ( ... William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867, no.225), [1] and four others were:
Sotheby’s, 18 June 1976, lot 132, signed [2]
Madingley sale, Foster’s, 14 June 1871, lot 88, signed [3]
Clumber sale, Christie’s, 4 June 1937, lot 48, from Stowe [4]
Private collection (as by Thornhill). [5]
The type was engraved in 1720 by both G. Vertue and J. Simon (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 47). [6] A miniature copy of the head by C. F. Zincke is in the Clarke collection, [7] and a chalk and wash copy by Edward Byng is in the British Museum. [8]

Footnotesback to top

1) The 1st Lord Eliot was the son of Craggs’s illegitimate daughter.
2) Signed and inscribed bottom left … sec of State/to K:Geo:1st
3) Scharf sketch and notes in NPG sale cat.
4) Stowe sale, 23rd day, 14 September 1848, lot 360; Clumber cat., 1923, no.210.
5) Inscribed bottom right … Secretary of State.
6) See J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.200; D. Alexander, ‘George Vertue as an Engraver’, Wal. Soc., LXX, 2008, no.316. Neither plate shows lettering on the papers on the table. Vertue shows scrolled patterning on the screen in the right background as in NPG 1134, Simon does not.
7) Exhibited Portrait Miniatures from The Clarke Collection, Scottish NPG, 2001, no.27, illus.
8) E. Croft-Murray & P. Hulton, British Museum, Catalogue of British Drawings: XVI and XVII centuries, 1960, p 237 (1897.8.13.7; Byng 6:f.10v).

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 88.

Provenanceback to top

Bilton Hall [home of Joseph Addison, an intimate friend of Craggs]; sale Christie’s, 25 June 1898, lot 14; purchased 1898.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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