George Knapton

George Knapton (1698 – December 1778) was an English portrait painter who specialised in portrait painting. He was the first portraitist for the Society of Dilettanti in the 1740s, and served as Surveyor and Keeper of the King's Pictures from 1765 to 1778.

Life and work Knapton was born in Christchurch, Hampshire, the son of William Knapton Esquire of Brockenhurst, Hampshire. He studied art under Jonathan Richardson, then at the St Martin's Lane Academy. He spent some years in Italy where he became known as a sound judge of the works of the Old Masters. An account of his visit to Herculaneum was published in the "Philosophical Transactions" of 1740 (no. 458). Knapton resigned his position at the society in 1763. He also painted portraits of the Earl of Upper Ossory (with his brother and sister), the Earl of Burlington, Admiral Sir John Norris, Francis, Fifth Duke of Leeds, Admiral George Vandeput, Archibald Bower, Nicolas Tindal, Smart Lethieullier, Hildebrand Jacob, Admiral Edward Hawke, and the singers Carestini and Lisabetta du Parc. For his portraits, he employed the specialist drapery painter Joseph Van Aken to paint the dresses and costumes of his sitters.

Knapton assisted his brothers John and Paul, who had succeeded to and extended their father's book publishing business in London in the production of several publications including works by Thomas Birch and The History of England by Nicolas Tindal and Paul de Rapin. Knapton died in Kensington in December 1778 and was buried there on the 28th of that same month. Knapton's brother, Charles Knapton, born in Christchurch, Hampshire (1700–1760), was also an artist and, together with Arthur Pond (1705?–1758), published a book Imitations of the Italian Masters (1735), which contained many engravings by himself, mainly of works by Guercino.

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