Mr. Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

The German-born Godfrey Kneller studied in Amsterdam and Italy before settling in London, where he exerted tremendous influence as the leading portraitist in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England. William and Mary designated him court painter in 1688, and he founded the first English art school in 1711. Kneller is best known for popularizing the "kit-cat portrait," a life-size, half-length format showing the sitter's hands, which he devised while painting the writers and Whig politicians of the Kit-Cat Club. The artist's 1716 portrait of the poet Alexander Pope - engraved the following year by the great mezzotinter John Smith - attests to the strong relationship and mutual admiration among three titans of English culture.