Kit-cat portrait

Last updated

Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Kneller's Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Kneller's finest portraits. John Vanbrugh.jpg
Sir John Vanbrugh in Godfrey Kneller's Kit-cat portrait, considered one of Kneller's finest portraits.

A kit-cat portrait or kit-kat portrait is a particular size of portrait, less than half-length, but including the hands. The name originates from a famous series of portraits which were commissioned from Godfrey Kneller for members of the Kit-Cat Club, a Whig dining club, to be hung in their meeting place at Barn Elms. They are now mostly in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London, with a selection of about twelve displayed in London and others at their satellite locations, including twenty on display at Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire. [1]

Contents

Size

Each canvas is thirty-six inches long, and twenty-eight wide. [2] The special Kit-cat portrait size is said to have been determined because the dining-room ceiling of the Kit-cat Club was too low for half-length portraits of the members. Slightly larger than the traditional head and shoulders format, it allows enough space to include one or both hands. So, while the poses in the Kit-cat portraits may look similar, none is actually repeated. When hung together, the overall effect is of a unified club of equals, though each man retains his individuality through distinct gestures, props and costumes. [3]

Types

The Kit Kat portraits, as a whole, can be broken down into three separate types. The first group may be represented by the portrait of John Vanbrugh. [4] Vanbrugh's portrait is the most famous and the style of the painting is the most common.

Subjects wear huge stately wigs and formal clothing. The men painted in this style often look down and off to the left of the view, if to be day-dreaming or thinking of some grand political scheme. These men are also painted with a ring or pendant, depicting their family crest.

William Cavendish [5] represents the second most popular pose in the series. He is painted with the same stately wig and fine clothing but he holds his staff of office as Lord Steward. His face is also more ruddy than Vanbrugh's, suggesting that he may be younger.

Thomas Hopkins represents the third most popular style. Instead of a wig, Hopkins is bald and sports a red cap but his clothes are the same as his fellow Kit Kats. [6]

Related Research Articles

Castle Howard

Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, within the civil parish of Henderskelfe, located 15 miles (24 km) north of York. It is a private residence and has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years. Castle Howard is not a fortified structure, but the term "castle" is sometimes used in the name of an English country house that was built on the site of a former castle.

Godfrey Kneller

Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet, was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to English and British monarchs from Charles II to George I. His major works include The Chinese Convert ; a series of four portraits of Isaac Newton painted at various junctures of the latter's life; a series of ten reigning European monarchs, including King Louis XIV of France; over 40 "kit-cat portraits" of members of the Kit-Cat Club; and ten "beauties" of the court of William III, to match a similar series of ten of Charles II's mistresses painted by Kneller's predecessor as court painter, Sir Peter Lely.

Lucian Freud

Lucian Michael Freud, OM CH was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud. Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata. His family moved to England in 1933 to escape the rise of Nazism. From 1942–43 he attended Goldsmiths College, London. He served at sea with the British Merchant Navy during the Second World War.

National Portrait Gallery, London Art gallery in London, England

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin's Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery. It has been expanded twice since then. The National Portrait Gallery also has regional outposts at Beningbrough Hall in Yorkshire and Montacute House in Somerset. It is unconnected to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, with which its remit overlaps. The gallery is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

John Russell (English painter)

John Russell RA was an English painter renowned for his portrait work in oils and pastels, and as a writer and teacher of painting techniques.

Kit-Cat Club

The Kit-Cat Club was an early 18th-century English club in London with strong political and literary associations. Members of the club were committed Whigs. They met at the Trumpet tavern in London and at Water Oakley in the Berkshire countryside.

Barn Elms

Barn Elms is an open space in Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, located on the northerly loop of the River Thames between Barnes and Fulham.

James Worsdale was an Irish and English portrait painter, actor, literary fraud, and libertine whose lively conversation, wit, and boldness allowed him to move among the highest circles of literary life. His skills as a painter are not widely praised by art historians, but his confidence and assertiveness secured him numerous commissions for portraits.

John Vanderbank English painter

John Vanderbank was a leading English portrait painter who enjoyed a high reputation during the last decade of King George I's reign and remained in high fashion in the first decade of King George II's reign. George Vertue's opinion was that only intemperance and extravagance prevented Vanderbank from being the greatest portraitist of his generation, his lifestyle bringing him into repeated financial difficulties and leading to an early death at the age of only 45.

Lord George Henry Cavendish was a British nobleman and politician.

Peter Lely 17th-century Dutch painter

Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.

Portraits of presidents of the United States

Beginning with painter Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, it has been traditional for the president of the United States to have an official portrait taken during their time in office, most commonly an oil painting. This tradition has continued to modern times, although since the adoption of photography as a widely used and reliable technology, the official portrait may also be a photograph

John Baptist Medina

Sir John Baptist Medina or John Baptiste de Medina was an artist of Flemish-Spanish origin who worked in England and Scotland, mostly as a portrait painter, though he was also the first illustrator of Paradise Lost by John Milton in 1688.

John Faber Jr.

John Faber Jr. was a Dutch portrait engraver active in London.

John Riley (painter)

John Riley, or Ryley, was an English portrait painter. He painted portraits of Charles II and James II, and was court painter to William III and Mary II. One of his pupils was Jonathan Richardson.

Bartholomew Dandridge (artist)

Bartholomew Dandridge was an English portrait painter.

<i>Flagmen of Lowestoft</i>

The Flagmen of Lowestoft are a collection of thirteen paintings by Sir Peter Lely, painted in the mid-1660s. They were originally part of the Royal Collections, though most were given to Greenwich Hospital in the nineteenth century, and are now in the National Maritime Museum in London. The paintings are of prominent naval officers, most of them of flag rank, who had fought at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. Lely at the time was Principal Painter to King Charles II.

<i>A Man with a Quilted Sleeve</i>

A Man with a Quilted Sleeve is a painting of about 1510 by the Venetian painter Titian in the National Gallery, London, measuring 81.2 by 66.3 centimetres. Though the quality of the painting has always been praised, there has been much discussion as to the identity of the sitter. It was long thought to be a portrait of Ariosto, then a self-portrait, but in 2017 is called Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo by the gallery, having also been called merely Portrait of a Man, the title used here, The Man with the Blue Sleeve, and no doubt other variants.

Walter Stoneman British photographer

Walter Ernest Stoneman was an English portrait photographer who took many photographs for the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London.

Charles Dartiquenave

Charles Dartiquenave, also known as Charles Darteneuf was an English epicure and courtier.

References

  1. "Portraits of members of the Kit Kat club by Sir Godfrey Kneller". Art Fund. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  2. Malone wrote in Dryden 534 (1800)
  3. "Room 9: The Kit-cat Club – National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  4. "Sir John Vanbrugh – National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  5. "William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  6. "Thomas Hopkins". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 15 February 2019.