James Gibbs

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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James Gibbs

by John Michael Williams
oil on canvas, circa 1737-1740
36 in. x 28 in. (912 mm x 712 mm)
Purchased, 1878
Primary Collection
NPG 504

Sitterback to top

  • James Gibbs (1682-1754), Architect. Sitter in 11 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • John Michael Williams (1710-circa 1780), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 22 portraits.

This portraitback to top

The portrait may once have belonged to Gibbs's patron, the Duke of Chandos. It is signed below the right shoulder in black: J. Williams Pinx. The book is lettered ARCHIT and could be either Gibbs's A Book of Architecture (1728), or his Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture (1732).


More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

Related worksback to top

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Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1737back to top

Current affairs

Death of Queen Caroline, wife of George II, on 20 November.
Frederick, Prince of Wales quarrels with his father. The king expels him from court for criticising the government.
Theatrical Licensing Act introduces censorship, requiring plays to be submitted to the Lord Chancellor for approval and reducing the number of theatres.

Art and science

French portrait-painter Jean-Baptiste Van Loo arrives in England where he soon attracts prominent sitters such as Robert Walpole, Colley Cibber and William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield.
Venus passes in front of Mercury and is witnessed by amateur astronomer John Bevis at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. It remains the only such planetary occlusion that has been directly observed.

International

Colonist William Byrd founds Richmond, Virginia.
French Académie Royale de Peintre et de Sculpture begins its programme of public exhibitions.
Florence loses her independence when the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany dies.


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