Brook Taylor

Brook Taylor, by Louis Goupy, 1720 -NPG 1920 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Brook Taylor

probably by Louis Goupy
1720
3 7/8 in. x 3 in. (98 mm x 76 mm)
NPG 1920

Inscriptionback to top

At the time of acquisition the portrait was inscribed on the frame: Brook Taylor. LL.D/L. Goupy. Del. 1720.
There was also on the backing paper the trade label of Edmd. Orme, printseller, of 59 New Bond Street (who may perhaps have framed it).

This portraitback to top

The attribution given on the frame has been generally accepted but Long [1] prefers to give NPG 1920 to Joseph (died before 1782), nephew of Louis Goupy (d. 1747) who was a friend of Taylor's and dedicated two engravings to him; [2] no works by Joseph however have so far been identified.

Footnotesback to top

1) B. Long, British Miniaturists, 1929, p 175; D. Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters, 1972, I, pp 292-93.
2) C. R. Grundy, 'Documents relating to an action brought against Joseph Goupy in 1738', Walpole Society, IX, 1921, p 78.

Physical descriptionback to top

Blue eyes, brown eyebrows, pale complexion; wine coloured cap with gold trimming and tassel, white shirt, blue and white striped dressing gown, lined with red; brown bound books in bookcase, one inscribed Linear/Perspec, another with an illegible inscription, open book also inscribed Linear Perspective; grey-green wall and drapery in background.

Conservationback to top

Good, slight flaking at edges.

Provenanceback to top

Bought, 1921, from Danton Guérault of Great Portland Street, who said that he had acquired it from a descendant of the sitter in Brighton.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, 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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