Background
Kneller was born on 8 August 1646 in the Free City of Lübeck to the family of the Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter.
(Lichfield, on the 7th of September 1709; where his father...)
Lichfield, on the 7th of September 1709; where his father was a respectable bookseller. He was a prodigy olearly understanding; and,while at Lichfield school preferred books and conversation to the usual puerile amusements. In his nineteenth year, being sent to Oxford, tie distinguished himself by hi Latin verses: but was prevented from remaining long enough for a degree, by the circumstances of his father; and obliged to seek his. bread, as an usher, at Market Boswonh, in Leicestershire, where he led a most miserable life, till an old schoolfellow invited him to Birmingham. At this place, he translated Father Loco s Voyagej and, n1735, having married Mrs. Porter, a mercers widow, opened an academy, at Edial, near Lichfield. But meeting with little encouragement, and having written the tragedy of I rene, he quitted his school and, accompanied by his pupil Gairiek, ventured to seek his fortune in London. He soon became acquainted with Mr. Cave, the original printer of the Gentleman s Magazine and, by his recommendation, with several booksellers, and literary characters. In 17+4, after having combated innumerable difficulties, Johnson sJ.ife of his old companion, Savage, made its appearance, and his literary reputation began rapidly to increase. In 17+6, he was engaged to compile his celebrated Engl i(h Dictionary jwhich was not compleated till May 1755. Mr. Garnck, in the mean time, brought out I rene in 1749, which was by no means successful. His inestimable Rambler commenced in 1750. In 17-53, he lost his, wife i in 175B, began the I dler, and wrote Raiselas in a Few days, that he might be enabled to visit his dying mother) and, in 176s, the king, to reward his extraordinary merits, granted him a pension of 300I. a year. In 1765, he published his Shakspearei but, from that period, till the publication of his Lives of the Poets, ini77S, he had so much indisp (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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Kneller was born on 8 August 1646 in the Free City of Lübeck to the family of the Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter.
Showing a marked preference for the fine arts, he studied in the school of Rembrandt, and under Ferdinand Bol in Amsterdam.
In 1672 he removed to Italy, directing his chief attention to Titian and the Caracci; Carlo Maratta gave him some guidance and encouragement. In 1674 he came to England at the invitation of the duke of Monmouth, was introduced to Charles II, and painted that sovereign, much to his satisfaction, several times. Charles also sent him to Paris, to take the portrait of Louis XIV. Charles appointed him court painter; and he continued to hold the same post into the days of George I.
When Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, Kneller, who produced in England little or nothing in the historical department, remained without a rival in the ranks of portrait painting; there was no native-born competition worth speaking of. Under William III (1692) he was made a knight, under George I (1715) a baronet, and by order of the emperor Leopold I a knight of the Roman Empire.
Not only his court favour but his general fame likewise was large: he was lauded by Dryden, Addison, Steele, Prior, Tickell and Pope. Kneller's gains also were very considerable; aided by habits of frugality which approached stinginess, he left property yielding an annual income of £2000. His studio had at first been in Covent Garden, but in his closing years he lived in Kneller Hall, Twickenham. He was buried in Twickenham church, and has a monument in Westminster Abbey. His works have much freedom, and are well drawn and coloured; but they are mostly slight in manner, and to a great extent monotonous, this arising partly from the habit which he had of lengthening the oval of all his heads. The colouring may be called brilliant rather than true. His fame has greatly declined, and could not but do so after the advent of Reynolds. He executed altogether the likenesses of ten sovereigns, and fourteen of his works appear in the National Portrait Gallery. It is said that Kneller's own favourite performance was the portrait of the " Converted Chinese " in Windsor Castle. His later works are confined almost entirely to England, not more than two or three specimens having gone abroad after he had settled here.
(Lichfield, on the 7th of September 1709; where his father...)
In fact, like all portraitists he was at his best with sitters to whom he warmed; otherwise a stereotyped baroque grandiloquence and a thronged studio obscured his real talents as a designer and handler of paint.