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William Kent

2 of 29 portraits by William Aikman

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Kent

by William Aikman
oil on canvas, circa 1723-1725
77 1/2 in. x 40 7/8 in. (1971 mm x 1039 mm)
Purchased, 1989
Primary Collection
NPG 6063

Sitterback to top

  • William Kent (1685?-1748), Architect, painter and landscape gardener. Sitter associated with 8 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • William Aikman (1682-1731), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 29 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Painted as the overmantel for the Great Hall at Wanstead in Essex, Lord Castlemaine's magnificent Palladian house, since demolished. The hall ceiling, representing the Times of Day, was Kent's work.

Linked publicationsback to top

Events of 1723back to top

Current affairs

Exiled Jacobite leader Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke is pardoned and allowed to return to London from Paris.
Workhouse Test Act under which poor relief claimants have to enter a workhouse.
Black Act makes poaching a capital offence.


Art and science

Architect Christopher Wren dies.
Artist Joshua Reynolds is born in Plympton, Devon.
Portrait-painter Godfrey Kneller dies.
Philosopher Bernard de Mandeville republishes his celebrated Fable of the Bees with new essays on charity and the nature of society. They are vigorously combated and made the subject of prosecution in 1729.


International

Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, agrees that Hungary shall be ruled as a separate kingdom within his empire.
Treaty of Charlottenburg signed between Britain and Prussia, which arranges for George I's grandson to marry a Prussian princess and Prince Frederick of Prussia to marry the Prince of Wales' daughter. It is never enacted.

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