Alexander Pope
21 of 5243 portraits matching these criteria:
- subject matching 'Double portraits'
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© National Portrait Gallery, London
Alexander Pope
attributed to Charles Jervas
oil on canvas, circa 1713-1715
70 in. x 50 in. (1778 mm x 1270 mm)
Purchased, 1860
Primary Collection
NPG 112
Artistback to top
- Charles Jervas (1675-1739), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 40 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Charles Jervas's portrait, in which the poet strikes his favourite meditative pose, was painted just as Pope had begun his translation of Homer's Iliad. The unusual composition may refer to the conflict between fame, represented by the bust of Homer in the top-left corner, and private friendship, symbolised by the figure of the woman who may be a portrait of Pope's close friend Martha Blount. 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).
Linked publicationsback to top
- Eger, Elizabeth; Peltz, Lucy, Brilliant Women: 18th Century Bluestockings, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 13 March to 15 June 2008), p. 69
- Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 212
- Piper, David, The development of the British literary portrait up to Samuel Johnson, 1970, plate XXII
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 500
Events of 1713back to top
Current affairs
An ailing Queen Anne is unable to attend a thanksgiving ceremony at St. Paul's in July to celebrate the treaty of Utrecht, attended by both Houses of Parliament in full state.John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, on self-imposed exile on the continent, is joined by his wife, Sarah Churchill.
Art and science
Literary fraternity, the Scriblerus Club is founded. Consisting of satirists, including Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and Thomas Parnell, the club ridiculed current trends in scholarship and culture through the fictitious literary character, Martinus Scriblerus.Joseph Addison's play, Cato, premieres at Drury Lane and becomes an immediate success.
International
Treaty of Utrecht, principally conceived by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Henry, St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, ends the War of the Spanish Succession against France. The accord establishes Bourbon, Philip d'Anjou, on the Spanish throne, with provisos, and forces Louis XIV to recognise a Hanoverian succession in Britain.Comments back to top
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