Discover watercolorist, author, engraver (printmaker) George Vertue

Qualifications: watercolorist, author, engraver (printmaker), reproductive engraver, art collector, mezzotinter, miniaturist painter, musician, draftsperson, art historian
engraver and draftsman in the service of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, with and for whom he made extensive journeys through England. His manuscripts are now based in the Britsh Museum (Welbeck Mss.) Horace Walpole based his Anecdotes of Painting on these manuscripts. Vertue was a keen researcher on details of the history of British art, accumulating about forty volumes of notebooks. As an art historian he wrote a catalogue detailing the collections of the royal family, at the request of Frederick, Prince of Wales, an avid buyer of the engraver's work.

Nationality/school: English

Born: London (England) 1684-11-17
Vertue was born in 1684 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, his father, perhaps a tailor, and mother are noted as 'Roman Catholic'.

Deceased: London (England) 1756-07/1756-07-24
Vertue was buried on July 24, 1756 in the cemetery of Westminster Abbey. His epitaph hangs in the Abbey itself (Hind 1914, p.121)

Family relationships this field records any family relationship to one or more other artist(s).: brother of the portrait painter James Vertue

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).

Kneller, Gottfried

He was amongst the first members of Godfrey Kneller's London Academy of Painting, who had employed him to engrave portraits

This person/entity in other databases

4 hits in RKDimages as artist
1 hit in RKDlibrary as subject
5 hits in RKDlibrary as author
2 hits in RKDlibrary as illustrator

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Biographical information

Education: Kneller's Academy (Londen)

Active in

Londen (Engeland) 1700 - 1756
His travels to sites across England, with enthusiasts such as Edward Harley (Earl of Oxford), Lord Coleraine and others, were recorded in Vertue's highly detailed drawings and notes. In 1717 he was appointed official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, the same year as its formal foundation.

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.: Gibson, Thomas (1680-1751)
Gucht, Michiel van der
Vertue worked seven years under Michael Vandergucht, before operating independently. While in the Academy of G. Kneller he became a pupil of Th. Gibson.

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, cityscape, topography, princely portrait
He is said to have made approximately 500 portraits and about the same amount of antiquarian prints of architecture and antiquities.

Literature

Literature in RKDLibrary: 1 hit in RKDlibrary as subject
5 hits in RKDlibrary as author

Walpole et al. 1762/1876 (ed. Wornum) , vol. 3, p. 268-287 ('The Life of Mr. George Vertue (1684-1756)')
Thieme/Becker 1907-1950 , vol. 34 (1940), p. 304-305
Gerson 1942/1983 , p. 396, 397, 401
Witt Checklist 1978 , p. 316
Bénézit 1999 , vol. 14, p. 187-188
Jeffares 2006
Saur 1992- , vol. 113 (2021), p. 39

F.M. O'Donoghue, 'Vertue, George', in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 1899
A.M. Hind, 'George Vertue's note-books and manuscripts relating to the history of art in England', The Third Annual Volume of the Walpole Society 1913-1914, (Oxford 1914), p. 121-139
R.W. Goulding, 'The Welbeck Abbey miniatures belonging to His Grace the Duke of Portland, K.G., G.V.C.O. A catalogue raisonné', The Walpole Society 1914-1915 (1916), p. 51-52
I. Bignamini, 'George Vertue: Art Historian', Walpole Society 54 (1988), p. 1-148
D. Alexander, Walpole Society 70 (2008)
Chr. Vöhringer (ed.), Kunstliteratur der Neuzeit. Eine kommentierte Anthologie, Dramstadt 2010, p. 195 ff.

The Vertue Notebooks I-VII (c. 1713-1750) are published by the Walpole Society: 18 (1930); 20 (1932); 22 (1934); 24 (1936); 26 (1938); 29 (1947); 30 (1955)

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 : United Kingdom

External links: this artist in the British Museum

Permalink: https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/80723

Creation date: 1992-01-31; Last modified date: 2023-05-17

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George Vertue

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