James Brindley
- Overview
- Extended Catalogue Entry
© National Portrait Gallery, London
James Brindley
by Francis Parsons
oil on canvas, 1770
51 1/4 in. x 39 1/4 in. (1302 mm x 997 mm)
Purchased, 1992
Primary Collection
NPG 6170
On display in Room 16 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery
Artistback to top
- Francis Parsons (active 1763-died 1804), Painter. Artist or producer associated with 3 portraits.
This portraitback to top
Brindley is shown with his surveying instrument and a view of the celebrated Barton Aqueduct which carried the Bridgwater canal over the River Irwell near Manchester.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Smartify image discovery app
- Ingamells, John, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, 2004, p. 70
- Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 77
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1770back to top
Current affairs
Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford.Art and science
Oliver Goldsmith publishes his poem The Deserted Village.Philosopher and politician Edmund Burke publishes Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents discussing the limits of the King's authority.
17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret.
Thomas Gainsborough paints his portrait of Jonathan Buttall, which later becomes known as The Blue Boy.
International
'Townshend duties' on imports into the colonies are repealed, except for the duty on tea. However, this concession is soon followed by the Boston Massacre, in which British troops fire into an unruly crowd in Boston, killing five.Captain Cook reaches the eastern coast of Australia, at a place which he names Botany Bay. He discovers the Great Barrier Reef when HMS Endeavour runs onto it. Cook claims New South Wales for the British.
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Victoria Owens
05 May 2021, 13:02
On Brindley's right hand side, there is a large black basalt urn - probably made by his friend Josiah Wedgwood. In the image on the screen, the background is so dark that the urn is impossible to see. It is rather a sad loss, since it pays tribute both to the friendship of the two men and to the economic significance that the emerging canal network held for the pottery industry at the time of the portrait's creation.