Discover engraver (printmaker), painter, court painter Gottfried Kneller

Name variations

This field records and makes accessible name variations, as found in sources. Alternate spellings, nicknames, maiden names - with or without the married name - are included in this category.

: Kniller, Gottfried
Kneller, Godfrey (Sir)

Monogram: GK

G.K.; Kneller sometimes used the monogram "GK", but most of his works are signed and dated in full

Qualifications: engraver (printmaker), painter, court painter, miniaturist painter, draftsperson
commissioned by Charles II and Principal Painter in Ordinary of king-stadholder William III from 1689 onwards; he was knighted in 1692; earlier also commissions from James II and later of Queen Anne. George I created him a baronet in 1715.

Nationality/school: German, English
naturalized as British citizen in 1683

Born: Lübeck 1646-08-08

Deceased: London (England) 1723-10-19/1723-10-27
buried in St Mary's Church, Twickenham, on 7 November

Family relationships this field records any family relationship to one or more other artist(s).: Son of the painter and verger (of Saint Catherine’s Church) Zacharias Zacharias Kniller (1611-1672) and Lucia Beuten (died 1689); younger brother of the painter Johann Zacharias Kneller (1644-1702), older brother of Andreas Kneller (1649-1724), who became a composer. Married in London on 23 January 1704 Susanna Grave (died 1729) in London (no issue). He had a mistress, Mrs. Voss, with whom he had a daughter, Catherine (c. 1685/90-1714).

See also In this field, you will find references to names of groups or to the artists that made/make up groups. You may also come across references to other artists if there was/is question of collaboration without a joint name. This is the case, for instance, with artists who rendered parts of works by other artists (such as with P.P Rubens and J. Brueghel I).

This person/entity in other databases

160 hits in RKDimages as artist
6 hits in RKDlibrary as subject
78 hits in RKDexcerpts as artist

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Biographical information

Active in

Leiden (stad) 1660 - 1665
originally sent to Leiden to study mathematics and the construction of fortifications there
Amsterdam (stad) 1660 - 1665
in the early 1660s a pupil of Rembrandt and Ferdinand Bol (Houbraken 1721); in the early to mid 1660s he was a pupil of Rembrandt and then with Bol
Rome 1672 - 1674
Venetië 1672 - 1674
met the Dutch painter Robert Duval in Venice (1649-1732) (Bakker 2017)
Neurenberg 1674
painted here the portrait of the sculptor Georg Schweigger (RKDimages 273605)
Lübeck 1675 - 1676
painted an epitaph for his father, who died in 1676, together with his brother Johann Zacharias (Bakker 2017)
Hamburg 1676
painted portraits of the family of the art lover Jacob de le Boë, the brother of the Leiden scholar and collector Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius (1614-1672); went by boat from Hamburg to London in 1676
Londen (Engeland) 1676
lodged with the Hamburg merchant John Banckes, whose portrait he painted in 1676 (Tate collection)
Londen (Engeland) 1677 - 1682
Kneller rented rooms with a French tailor in Durham Yard (now surroundings of Durham House Street) (Stewart 1983). Coordinate determined from John Rocque's map of London from 1746.
Londen (Engeland) 1682 - 1703
In 1682 Kneller moved to a house in the north-east corner ot the Piazza of Covent Garden (Stewart 1983). Coordinate determined from John Rocque's map of London from 1746.
Parijs 1684
sent to France by Charles II to paint a portrait of Louis XIV (untraced; copies at Drayton House, Northants, and Heckfield Place, Hants; Cast 2004)
Versailles 1684 - 1685
made a large drawing of the antique Diane de Versailles (British Museum)
Brussel 1697
Antwerpen (stad) 1697
probably (painting of Frans de Cock)
Londen (Engeland) 1703 - 1723
Kneller bought a house in Great Queen Street in 1704, near Lincoln's Inn Fields. (Stewart 1983). Also Kneller's Academy of Painting and Drawing was established here 1711-1716. Coordinate determined from John Rocque's map of London from 1746.

born in

active in

died in

Connections with other artists

Pupil of This field mentions the names of teachers or masters. What is at issue are the teachers who made a significant contribution to the development of a students, as opposed to every instructor they ever had. See also the 'Education' field.: Bol, Ferdinand
Rembrandt
Teacher of This field mentions the names of pupils. What is at issue are the pupils who were significantly influenced by a teacher as opposed to every student someone ever had. See also the 'Education' field.: Bindon, Francis
Bodin, Alessandro W.
Byng, Edward
Byng, Robert
Diest, Johan van
Highmore, Joseph
Jervas, Charles
Kneller, Johann Zacharias
Marshall, George
Monnoyer, Jean-Baptiste
Pieters, Jan (III)
Quiter, Magnus de
Weidemann, Friedrich Wilhelm
Winstanley, Hamlet
Worsdale, James
Followed by This field mentions the artist’s emulators. Although students can naturally also be followers, they are not mentioned again here. What is meant by followers are those who continue to work in the spirit of a predecessor. Sometimes this may happen a century later; there is no time limit. What is at issue, however, is that someone’s oeuvre must substantially follow in the manner of the artist emulated.: Boekhorst, Johannes de
Sykes, William
Whood, Isaac
Influenced by In contrast with ‘follower of’, we speak of ‘influenced by’ when an artist was influenced outside the context of an educational setting or servile following. An artist can be influenced by several artists at once, or in succession. In addition, there may be question of a transition to a personal style which may demonstrate development.: Lely, Peter
Influence on This field specifies the artists influenced by the artist in question, without there being question of an educational setting or servile following.: Aikman, William
Ellys, John
Fellowes, James
Gibson, Thomas (1680-1751)
King, Samuel (active 1686-1695)
Maubert, James
Medina, John Baptiste de
Paling, Isaac
Pelham, Peter
Scougall, John
Seymour, Edward
Sonmans, Willem
Vanderbank, John (II)
Klopper, Jan

Subjects This field specifies the various subject categories or genres that constitute the oeuvre of the artist in question. The contents of this field are generally based more on the documentation available at the RKD than on the literature.: history (genre), portrait, Christian religious scene

Literature

Literature in RKDLibrary: 6 hits in RKDlibrary as subject

Sandrart/Peltzer 1675/1925 , p. 350-352
Houbraken 1718-1721 , vol. 2 (1719), p. 9, 18, 47-48, 326; vol. 3 (1721), p. 233-238 (as: Godfried Kneller)
Kramm 1857-1864 , vol. 3 (1859), p. 878-879
Walpole et al. 1762/1876 (ed. Wornum) , vol. 2 (1876), p. 202-213 (as: Sir Godfrey Kneller)
Von Wurzbach 1906-1911 , vol. 1 (1906), p. 296-298
Collins Baker 1912 , vol. 2, p. 75-94, 171-177
Thieme/Becker 1907-1950 , vol. 20 (1927), p. 596-597 (as: Kniller (Kneller), Gottfried (Godfrey),)
Nisser 1927 , passim
Gerson 1942/1983 , passim
Hollstein et al. 1949-2010 , vol. 9 [1953], p. 252
Bénézit 1976 , vol. 6, p. 252
Witt Checklist 1978 , p. 159
Blankert 1980
Waterhouse 1981 , p. 210-211
Stewart 1983
Sumowski 1983-1994 , vol. 3, nos. 970-977
Waterhouse 1988 , p. 155-156
Howarth (ed.) 1993 , p. 243-263
Turner et al. 1996 , vol. 81, p. 4-5
Stewart/Cutten 1997 , p. 289-291
Kollmann 2000 , p. 224-227
Saur 1992- , vol. 81 (2014), p. 4 (as: Kneller, Godfrey)
De Witt/Van Sloten/Van der Veen 2015 , passim
Horn/Van Leeuwen 2021 [Houbraken Translated]

C.H. Collins Baker, ‘The craftsmanship of Kneller’, The Connoisseur 127 (1951), p. 29–32
J. Douglas Stewart, 'William III and Sir Godfrey Kneller', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 33 (1970), p. 330-336
E. Benkó, 'Sur un ''portrait de femme'' par Godfrey Kneller', Bulletin de Musée hongrois des Beaux-Arts 55 (1980), p. 47-65
J.D. Stewart, ‘Sir Godfrey Kneller as painter of histories and portraits historiés’, Art and patronage in the Caroline courts: essays in honour of Sir Oliver Millar, ed. D. Howarth (1993), p. 243–263
U. Wolff-Thomsen, ‘Magdalena Hedwig Röder und Gottfried Kneller: eine Neuentdeckung’, Nordlinglen; Beiträge zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte Schleswig-Holstein 69 (2000), p. 7–13
W. Liedtke, 'Rembrandt's "Workshop" revisited', Oud Holland 117 (2004), p. 48-73 (esp. p. 68)
J. Douglas Stewart in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004/2010)
J. Fuchs, 'Over Weyermans reizen naar Engeland, en over de schilder Jan Frans van Son', Mededelingen van de stichting Jacob Camp Weyerman 37 (2014), p. 1-12
P. Bakker, “Godfrey Kneller” (2017), In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020– (online)

Documentation RKD

This field specifies the location of the various RKD documentation materials. Most of the locations refer to our art-historical image documentation. In addition, you will find references to press documentation (clippings and short articles) here.

Project: Gerson Digital : Germany
Gerson Digital : United Kingdom
RemBench

External links: this artist in Ecartico
this artist in the British Museum
Bakker 2017

Permalink: https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/45019

Creation date: 1992-01-11; Last modified date: 2023-02-18

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Gottfried Kneller

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