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The leading British decorative painter in an age of foreign competition. His most famous murals are in the Painted Hall at Greenwich and in the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. His knighthood in 1720, the first to a native British artist, and his election as an MP in 1722 came at the time of his fall from favour as a painter. His daughter married William Hogarth.Unlike many artists of the day, Thornhill did not make his living from portraits. He was a decorative painter specialising in complex historical and mythological murals for noble and public buildings. This painting is an unusual rhetorical self-portrait. It shows a beautiful female figure – an Allegory of Painting – working on a portrait of the artist. By suggesting that he was made, or inspired, by this personification of Art, Thornhill was making claims both for his own superiority as an artist and for the international and academic potential of British art.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Sir James Thornhill

Date

c.1710–1725

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 116.2 x W 149.5 cm

Accession number

5339

Acquisition method

Purchased, 1980. On long-term loan to Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire

Work type

Painting

National Portrait Gallery, London

St Martin’s Place, London, Greater London WC2H 0HE England

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Artist or maker

James Thornhill

1675/1676–1734

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Ezechiel Spanheim (1629–1710), Numismatist, Philologian and Diplomat Trinity College, University of Cambridge
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