John Harvey (1681-1735) Architect

Location

Country: Germany
City: Berlin
Place: British Embassy

John Vanderbank, portraitist, history painter and illustrator, was born in London, the son of a tapestry weaver of the same name. From 1711, he studied at Kneller's Academy and, in 1720, established an academy of his own with French painter Louis Cheron, in St. Martin's Lane. The academy closed after May 1724, when Vanderbank fled to France to avoid imprisonment for debts. He studiously copied the work of Rubens and Van Dyck and was considered a gifted portraitist. However, he ruined a promising career through intemperate living. From 1724 to 1729 he was repeatedly in debt and detained in Fleet prison. His chief book illustrations were 68 plates for ‘Don Quixote’ (1738). He died of at his home in Holles Street aged 45, leaving a wife, Anne.

People

John Harvey (1681 - 1735)

Places

Subjects

architect (as Subject), scroll (as Subject), architectural plan/technical drawing, male portrait, landscape C18th, dividers, man, 18th century costume, coat, waistcoat, tudor cap, window, armchair, desk, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

John Vanderbank (1694 - 1739)

Title

John Harvey (1681-1735) Architect

Date

1732

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 117.00 cm, width: 132.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Christie's, 1 August 1957

Inscription

bl: J Vanderbank 1732 [barely legible]

Provenance

Collection of A. G. Doyle of Southover Lodge, 6 Park Road, Beckenham, Kent; by whose executors sold through Christie's, London, on 1 August 1957 (Lot 14), as ‘Portrait of an Architect, in green coat, seated in an armchair holding a plan; other plans on table beside him’ by Hogarth; from which sale purchased by ‘Walker’ (Richard Walker) on behalf of the Ministry of Works

GAC number

3880