KNELLER, SIR GODFREY ) , English por trait painter of German extraction, was born in Lubeck of an ancient family, on Aug. 8, 1648. He studied in the school of Rem brandt, and under Ferdinand Bol in Amsterdam. In 1672 he removed to Italy. In Rome, and more especially in Venice, Kneller earned considerable reputation by historical paintings as well as portraits. In 1674 he came to England at the invitation of the duke of Monmouth and was introduced to Charles II., of whom he made many portraits. Charles sent him to Paris, to take the portrait of Louis XIV., and appointed him court painter; and he continued to hold the same post into the days of George I. Under William III. (1692) he was made a knight, under George I. (1715) a baronet, and by order of the emperor Leopold I. a knight of the Roman Empire. His studio had at first been in Covent Garden, but in his closing years he lived in Kneller Hall, Twickenham. He died on Nov. 7, 1723. He was buried in
Twickenham church, and has a monument in Westminster Abbey.
An elder brother, John Zachary Kneller, an ornamental painter, had accompanied Godfrey to England, and had died in 1702. The style of Sir Godfrey Kneller as a portrait painter represented the decline of that art as practised by Vandyck. His works have much freedom, and are well drawn and coloured; but they are mostly slight in manner, and to a great extent monotonous. The colouring may be called brilliant rather than true. Among Knel ler's principal paintings are the "Forty-three Celebrities of the Kit-Cat Club," and the "Ten Beauties of the Court of William III.," now at Hampton Court. He executed altogether the like nesses of ten sovereigns, and a number of his works appear in the National Portrait Gallery, London.