John Tillotson

John Tillotson, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt, based on a work of circa 1694 -NPG 94 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

John Tillotson

after Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt
based on a work of circa 1694
35 3/4 in. x 27 3/4 in. (908 mm x 705 mm)
NPG 94

This portraitback to top

A reduced version of Kneller’s three-quarter-length portrait engraved by J. Simon (J. Chaloner Smith, British Mezzotinto Portraits, 151) and by R. White as Aetat:64 Ano.1694. The original painting is probably that at Eastnor Castle, [1] but there are very many versions, including those at Lambeth Palace, [2] Woburn and Clare College, Cambridge. [3]

Footnotesback to top

1) J. D. Stewart, Godfrey Kneller, 1983, no.749; engr. G. Vertue 1710 as E Collectione Nobilissimi Ioannis Domini Somers (D. Alexander, ‘George Vertue as an Engraver’, Wal. Soc., LXX, 2008, no.69).
2) Exhibited Second Special Exhibition of National Portraits ( ... William and Mary to MDCCC), South Kensington, 1867, no.24.
3) J. W. Goodison, Catalogue of the Portraits in Christ’s, Clare and Sidney Sussex Colleges, 1985, pp 65-66, nos.134, 135. A list is given in J. Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835, catalogue, 1981, pp 384-85, to which may be added, for example, the half-lengths sold Sotheby’s, 17 February 1988, lot 215 (oval) and 6 April 1993, lot 97, and Tennant’s, 13 April 2006, lot 856; a miniature version (reversed) by Henry Spicer sold Christie’s, 8 December 1982, lot 244.

Referenceback to top

Ingamells 1981
J. Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835, catalogue, 1981, pp 384-85.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, pp 345-46.

Provenanceback to top

Henry Graves, from whom purchased 1860.


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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