Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller ( born August 8, 1646 Lübeck, † October 19, 1723 in London ) was a German portrait painter and court artist.

Life

Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in Lübeck. He came from a family of artists; his father Zacharias Kniller was a painter in Lübeck and his younger brother, Andreas Kneller, later became a composer. Together with his other brother, John Zacharias (1644-1702), who was also a painter, Gottfried emigrated after the death of his father from the UK.

The former pupil of Ferdinand Bol and Rembrandt became one of the leading portrait painter of the late 17th and early 18th century. He painted portraits of ten reigning European monarchs, including King Louis XIV of France. 1680 he was appointed court painter of Charles II, and later of William III. ennobled. George I appointed him a baronet.

He also created 48 portraits of members of the Kit - Cat Club, were organized in which members of the Whig party, were interested in politics and art. He was also head of the Kneller Academy of Painting and Drawing, who resided in Great Queen Street in London 1711-1716. He died in 1723 of a fever and was buried in London's Twickenham Church. In Westminster Abbey is an epitaph reminds him - the only one for a painter in this church.

Kneller students have included Friedrich Wilhelm Weidemann, the court painter to the Prussian prince and later king Friedrich Wilhelm I and his cousin Carl Emil Weidemann, the court painter to the Prussian Queen Sophia Dorothea.

Works (selection)

Works in the public domain

  • The philosopher or the old scholar (1668 ), Lübeck, St. Annen Museum Lübeck with its counterpart of the young scholars of his brother Johann Zacharias
  • Portrait of Thomas Fredenhagen, Lübeck alderman and merchant, St. Annen Museum
  • Portrait of Katharina Fred Hagen, born Millie, wife of Thomas Fredenhagen, St. Annen Museum
  • Portrait of Ludwig Maximilian Mehmet King Trust, Royal 's personal valet, convention hall of the monastery Barsinghausen
  • Portrait of Maria Hedewig Mehmet King litter, born Wedekind, convention hall of the monastery Barsinghausen
  • Self Portrait, St. Annen Museum
  • Epitaph Zacharias Kneller, St. Catherine's Church in Lübeck. The epitaph of her father painted Godfrey and Johann Zacharias together. It is located in the St. Catherine's Church in Lübeck on the fourth pilaster of the southern aisle.
  • Portrait of Guido Starhemberg, Imperial Commander, Military History Museum, Vienna.
  • Portrait of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and his family, in 1713, National Gallery of Canada

Works in private ownership

Gallery

Isaac Newton ( 1689)

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1705 )

Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1710 )

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos with Family ( 1713)

Guido from Starhemberk ( 1710 /15)

Germans Johann Zacharias Kneller 17th century Kit-Cat Club Museum of Military History, Vienna John Spencer-Churchill, 11th Duke of Marlborough Neue Deutsche Biographie Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Zeno.org Integrated Authority File
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