| Portrait of John Locke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Godfrey Kneller |
| Year | 1697 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 76 cm× 64 cm(30 in× 25 in) |
| Location | Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg |
Portrait of John Locke is an oil on canvas painting by German-born painter Godfrey Kneller, from 1697. It depicts the English philosopher John Locke. It is held in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg. [1]
Kneller in his work created a portrait gallery of the most important intellectual and artistic personalities of his time in England. The current portrait is from the final years of the philosopher John Locke, when he was around 65 years old, at a time when he was living away from society, in a country estate, with a close circle of friends. The portrait presents his sitter in a discret manner. Locke is shown in a brown background, also wearing a born outfit, and looking to the left. Light incides particularly on his face, white hair and collar. However the depiction shows its due reverence to one of the leading English intellectuals of his time. The Hermitage website states: "Yet despite this intimacy and informality, we have a full sense of the importance and weight of the sitter's". [1] [2]
The painting was in the collection of Robert Walpole, in Houghton Hall, until it was bought by the Hermitage Museum, in 1779. [1]
Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet 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.
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