Sir Godfrey Kneller, August 8, 1646 – October 19, 1723, was a German-born painter who became the leading portraitist in England during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
He worked for the courts of Charles II, James II, William III, Mary II, and Queen Anne, and painted many of the major political, scientific, literary, and aristocratic figures of his period.
Kneller is best known for formal state portraits, court portraits, and the Kit-Cat Club series. He was knighted in 1692 and made a baronet in 1715.
Self-Portrait, 1685
Oil on canvas, 29.8 x 24.8 in
National Portrait Gallery, London
King James II, 1684
Oil on canvas, 96.8 x 56.8 in
National Portrait Gallery, London
Michael Alphonsus Shen Fu-Tsung, 1687
Oil on canvas, 83.5 x 58.1 in
Royal Collection, UK
Sir Isaac Newton, 1689
Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in
Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK
William III, 1690
Oil on canvas, 96 x 58.1 in
Royal Collection, UK
John Locke, 1697
Oil on canvas, 29.9 x 25.1 in
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, 1698
Oil on canvas, 95.2 x 57.3 in
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, c 1702
Oil on canvas, 41.5 x 35 in
National Portrait Gallery, London
Queen Anne, c 1702–1704
Oil on canvas, 30 x 25.1 in
Royal Collection, UK
Sir John Vanbrugh, c 1705
Oil on canvas, 36 x 28 in
National Portrait Gallery, London
Sir Christopher Wren, 1711
Oil on canvas, 49 x 39.5 in
National Portrait Gallery, London
Edmond Halley, before 1721
Oil on canvas, 21.1 x 16.9 in
Royal Museums Greenwich, London
Portrait of Alexander Pope, 1722
Oil on canvas, 28.9 x 24 in
St John's College, Cambridge, UK