Benjamin Wilson
1 portrait by Benjamin Wilson
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Benjamin Wilson
by Benjamin Wilson
mezzotint, circa 1749
9 7/8 in. x 7 7/8 in. (251 mm x 201 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D4835
Sitterback to top
- Benjamin Wilson (1721-1788), Portrait painter and scientist. Sitter in 5 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 44 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Benjamin Wilson (1721-1788), Portrait painter and scientist. Artist or producer associated with 44 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.
Events of 1749back to top
Current affairs
Royal Fireworks in Green Park to celebrate the Peace of Aix-La-Chapelle. 10,000 rockets are let off at a cost of £8,000. Composer George Frideric Handel's accompanying Music for the Royal Fireworks is performed for the first time.George II is introduced to William Ansah Sessarakoo the 'Prince of Annamaboe'. The son of a wealthy chief from the West African Gold Coast, he had been taken prisoner and made a slave in the West Indies.
Art and science
Horace Walpole buys the house and grounds which he will transform into his neo-Gothic fantasy, Strawberry Hill, in Twickenham, London.Henry Fielding publishes his comic novel Tom Jones.
John Cleland's erotic novel Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) is published. The author is released from debtor's prison but arrested again later in the year and charged with corrupting the King's subjects.
International
George II grants a charter to Ohio Company to settle Ohio valley in the American colonies.British settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia is founded.
Sugar planters found Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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