SIR

See also:

• GODFREY, SIR EDMUND BERRY (1621-1678)

GODFREY

See also:

• SIR GODFREY KNELLER (1648-1723)

KNELLER (1648-1723)  , a portrait painter whose celebrity belongs chiefly to England, was born in Lubeck in the duchy of Holstein, of an ancient family, on the 8th of August 1648 . He was at first intended for the army, and was sent to Leyden to learn mathematics and fortification . Showing, however, a marked preference for the fine arts, he studied in the school of Rembrandt, and under Ferdinand Bol in Amsterdam . In 1672 he removed to Italy, directing his chief attention to Titian and the Caracci; Carlo Maratta gave him some guidance and encouragement . In Rome, and more especially in Venice, Kneller earned considerable reputation by historical paintings as well as portraits . He next went to Hamburg, painting with still increasing success . In 1674 he came to England at the invitation of the duke of Monmouth, was introduced to Charles II., and painted that sovereign, much to his satisfaction, several times . Charles also sent him to Paris, to take the portrait of Louis XIV . When Sir Peter Lely died in 168o, Kneller, who produced in England little or nothing in the historical department, remained without a rival in the ranks of portrait painting; there was no native-born competition worth speaking of . Charles appointed him court painter; and he continued to hold the same post into the days of George I . Under William III . (1692) he was made a knight, under George I .

(1715) a

baronet, and by order of the emperor Leopold I. a knight of the Roman Empire . Not only his court favour but his general fame likewise was large: he was lauded by Dryden, Addison, Steele, Prior, Tickell and Pope . Kneller's gains also were very considerable; aided by habits of frugality which approached stinginess, he left property yielding an annual income of £2000 . His industry was maintained till the last . His studio had at first been in Covent Garden, but in his closing years he lived in Kneller Hall, Twickenham . He died of fever, the date being generally given as the 7th of November 1723, though some accounts say 1726 . He was buried in Twickenham church, and has a monument in Westminster Abbey . An elder brother, John Zachary Kneller, an ornamental painter, had accompanied Godfrey to England, and had died in 1702 . The style of Sir Godfrey Kneller as a portrait painter represented the decline of that art as practised by Vandyck; Lely marks the first grade of descent, and Kneller the second . His works have much freedom, and are well drawn and coloured; but they are mostly slight in manner, and to a great extent monotonous, this arising partly from the habit which he had of lengthening the oval of all his heads . The colouring may be called brilliant rather than true . He indulged much in the common-places of allegory; and, though he had a quality of dignified elegance not unallied with simplicity, genuine simple nature is seldom to be traced in his works .

His fame has greatly declined, and could not but do so after the

advent of Reynolds . Among Kneller's principal paintings are the "Forty-three Celebrities of the Kit-Cat Club," and the " Ten Beauties of the Court of William III.," now at Hampton Court; these were painted by order of the queen; they match, but match unequally, the " Beauties of the Court of Charles II.," painted by Lely . He executed altogether the likenesses of ten sovereigns, and fourteen of his works appear in the National Portrait Gallery . It is said that Kneller's own favourite performance was the portrait of the " Converted Chinese " in Windsor Castle . His later works are confined almost entirely to England, not more than two or three specimens having gone abroad after he had settled here . (W . M .