Artist
Sir Godfrey Kneller
German, 1646–1723
Sir Godfrey Kneller was a German Dutch Golden Age painter. 36 works are cataloged here, principally at Victoria and Albert Museum, most of them oil paintings. Sir Godfrey Kneller was born in Lübeck.
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723) was a German-born British painter. The leading portraitist in England during the late Stuart and early Georgian eras, he served as court painter to successive English and British monarchs, including Charles II of England and George I of Great Britain. Kneller also painted scientists such as Isaac Newton, foreign monarchs such as Louis XIV of France and visitors to England such as Michael Shen Fu-Tsung.
A pioneer of the kit-cat portrait, he was also commissioned by William III of England to paint eight "Hampton Court Beauties" to match a similar series of paintings of Charles II's "Windsor Beauties" that had been painted by Kneller's predecessor as court painter, Peter Lely.
Works by Sir Godfrey Kneller
Portrait of a Man
Lady Mary Berkeley, Wife of Thomas Chambers
Portrait of a Woman, Called Maria Taylor Byrd
Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726), Duke of St. Albans
Portrait of Piotr Potyomkin (1617-1700)
Abraham banishes Hagar and Ishmael
Aernout van Citters (1633-96), Ambassador of the Dutch Republic in London
Portrait of the first Earl of Albemarle
An old scholar
Collections represented
Artists in a similar vein
