Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (British English: NEL-ə; born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723) was a British painter of German origin. The leading portraitist in England during the late Stuart and early Georgian eras, he served as court painter to successive English and British monarchs, including Charles II of England and George I of Great Britain. Kneller also painted scientists such as Isaac Newton, foreign monarchs such as Louis XIV of France and visitors to England such as Michael Shen Fu-Tsung. A pioneer of the kit-cat portrait, he was also commissioned by William III of England to paint eight "Hampton Court Beauties" to match a similar series of paintings of Charles II's "Windsor Beauties" that had been painted by Kneller's predecessor as court painter, Peter Lely.
Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in the Free City of Lübeck, the son of Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter. Kneller initially studied mathematics at the University of Leiden, however, owing to his inclination for drawing, became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn in Amsterdam by choice of his father. His earliest dated work, no doubt a technical product of this period, is of Johann Philipp von Schönborn, completed in 1666 and now hanging at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
He then travelled with his brother John Zacharias Kneller, who was an ornamental painter, to Rome and Venice in the early 1670s, painting historical subjects and portraits in the studio of Carlo Maratti, and later moved to Hamburg.
The brothers came to England in 1676, and won the patronage of the Duke of Monmouth. He was introduced to, and painted a portrait of, Charles II.
In England, Kneller concentrated almost entirely on portraiture. In the spirit of enterprise, he founded a studio which churned out portraits on an almost industrial scale, relying on a brief sketch of the face with details added to a formulaic model, aided by the fashion for gentlemen to wear full wigs. Under this system, Kneller was capable of receiving up to fourteen sitters in a single day. His portraits set a pattern that was followed until William Hogarth and Joshua Reynolds.
He eventually established himself as a leading portraitist in England. When Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, Kneller was jointly appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary with John Riley to the Crown by Charles II.
For about 20 years (c. 1682–1702) he lived at No. 1617 The Great Piazza, Covent Garden. Kneller's studio manager was Edward Byng.
Between early 1690 and late 1691, Kneller painted the Hampton Court Beauties depicting the most glamorous ladies-in-waiting of the Royal Court by commission from Queen Mary II. In 1692, Kneller received his knighthood from William III, consequent to the success of the works. Kneller's Beauties emulated the Windsor Beauties by Sir Peter Lely, which were painted for Anne Hyde, duchess of York, Queen Mary II's mother.
Adding to his honours, on 9 November 1695, in the presence of the King, Kneller was created Doctor of Civil Law, an honorary degree awarded by the University of Oxford now confined to the recognition of 'excellence in legal scholarship'. In 1700, he was also created a Knight of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Leopold I.
He produced a series of "Kit-cat" portraits - recognisable from their unique 28" x 36" dimension - of 48 leading politicians and men of letters who were members of the Kit-Cat Club.
Created a baronet by King George I on 24 May 1715, he was also head of the Kneller Academy of Painting and Drawing from 1711 until 1716 in Great Queen Street, London, which counted such artists as Thomas Gibson amongst its founding directors. His paintings were praised by Whig members including John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and Alexander Pope.
On the landing in Horsham Museum in West Sussex hang works of art from the museum's extensive painting collection, featuring a large 18th-century portrait of Charles Eversfield and his wife, of Denne Park House.
In addition to Kneller's work as a painter, in the early 1700s he also served as a Justice of the Peace - or as it is more commonly termed today, a magistrate - for the county of Middlesex. He is said to have had a 'shrewd wit and sound judgment' and that he 'exercised a rough-and-ready sort of equity which commanded respect'. During his tenure as a JP, he presided over a well-known entrapment case immortalised by Alexander Pope in his satire on The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace, which was published in 1737.
He married a widow, Susanna Grave, on 23 January 1704 at St Bride's Church, London. She was the daughter of the Reverend John Cawley, Archdeacon of Lincoln and Rector of Henley-on-Thames, and the granddaughter of regicide William Cawley. The couple had no children.
Kneller died the night of 19 October 1723 at Great Queen Street having suffered a year and five months from fever. Following a grand funeral, his remains were ultimately interred at St Mary's Church,Twickenham. He had been a churchwarden at St Mary's when the 14th-century nave collapsed in 1713 and was active in the plans for the church's reconstruction by John James. His widow was buried at Twickenham on 11 December 1729.
Alexander Pope, some years after Kneller's death in 1731, wrote in a touching letter that 'Sir Godfrey Kneller call'd imploying the pencil [paint-brush], the prayer of the painter, and affirm'd it to be his proper way of serving God, by the talent he gave him'.
A memorial was erected in Westminster Abbey. Kneller's will gave a pension of £100 a year to his assistant Edward Byng and entrusted Byng with seeing that all unfinished work was completed. Byng also inherited the drawings in Kneller's studio.
Kneller and his wife had no children together. Most of his fortune was inherited by his grandson, Godfrey Kneller Huckle, who was the son of Agnes Huckle, Kneller's illegitimate daughter by Mrs Voss, and who took his grandfather's surname Kneller by private act of Parliament - Kneller's Name Act 1730 (4 Geo. 2. c. 32 Pr.) - as a condition of his inheritance.