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Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt

2 of 30 portraits of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt

Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt, by Jean Cavalier, circa 1690 -NPG 1740 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt

by Jean Cavalier
circa 1690
3 3/4 in. (95 mm) high
NPG 1740

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed: GOTHOFRIDUS.KNELLER.PRIM.PICT.REGIS.MAG.BRITANNIAE; signed in exergue: I. C.

This portraitback to top

The inscription makes no mention of Kneller’s knighthood in March 1692 which makes Forrer’s attribution to John Croker (who only arrived in England late in 1691) unlikely. Piper compared NPG 1740 with Cavalier’s medallion of William III and pointed out that the King was sitting to both Cavalier and Kneller on 17 March 1690; [1] Cavalier’s permit to leave England is dated 11 December that year; [2] Stewart accepted the attribution to Cavalier.

Footnotesback to top

1) A. Staring, ‘De Portretten van den Koning-Stadhouder’, Nederlandsch. Kunsthistorisch. Jaarboek, III, 1950-51, pp 184-85.
2) A. Julius, Jean Cavalier, 1926, p 145.

Referenceback to top

Forrer 1904
L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, 1904, I, p 478 as attributed to John Coker.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 191 as attributed to Cavalier.

Stewart 1983
J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, p 39n1 as Cavalier.

Provenanceback to top

J. G. Murdock; purchased 1914.

Exhibitionsback to top

Sir Godfrey Kneller, NPG, 1971, no.4.


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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