John Dryden (1631-1700) (copy after Kneller)
studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1693 - circa 1698
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1257 x 1003 mm (49 1/2 x 39 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Treasurer's House, North Yorkshire
NT 593125
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, John Dryden (1631-1700) (copy after Kneller of 1693), studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646/9 - London 1723), circa 1693/98. A half-length portrait, standing, turned to the left, gazing to the right, wearing a long wig. This is a copy of the portrait by Kneller in the National Portrait Gallery.
Provenance
Probably from Joseph Addison's collection at Holland House and then Bilton Hall, nr Rugby where it was first recorded in the ms. catalogue by Emily Bridgeman Simpson, of 1876 or before, as a portrait of Sir John Vanbrugh by Simon Verelst (cf. John Rouse Bloxam, A Register of Presidents, Fellows, Demies .... &c of .... Magdalen College .... Oxford: The Demies: vol. III [1879], p. 96). This work was Bought by Frank Green at the Bilton Hall sale, Christie's, London, 25 June 1898, (lot 27) as a portrait of Vanbrugh by S.Verlest. Over the years the work has been regularly confused in various documents with NT593124 (a portrait of an unknown man by Sonmans, sometimes identifed as either Dryden or Vanbrugh) e.g.1909 insurance valuation: "Portrait of Dryden ... By Verelst".
Credit line
Treasurer’s House, York, The Frank Green Gift (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
40¼ (pencil mark)
Makers and roles
studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller (Lübeck 1646 - London 1723), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Simon Pietersz Verelst (The Hague 1644 - London 1721), artist
References
Ingamells, 2009: John Ingamells, Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2009, p.79