Treasures: Columbia Rare Book & Manuscript Library

THE RARE BOOK AND
MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Treasures

43 Godfrey Kneller 1646-1723
Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches [1715?]

The brilliant and versatile writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), one of the most colorful Englishwomen of her time, is noted primarily for her highly descriptive letters and is also remembered as a distinguished minor poet, an essayist, and a feminist. Her portrait by Kneller, labeled Lady Mary Pierpoint, her maiden name, was formerly in the collection of the Earl of Wharncliffe, a descendant. The principal painter of the English court under monarchs from Charles II to George I, Kneller became the director of the first Academy of Painting in London and had a strong influence on the subsequent generation of English portraitists.

Gift of Robert Halsband

Collections and Treasures

43	Godfrey Kneller 1646-1723
Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches [1715?]
The brilliant and versatile writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762), one of the most colorful Englishwomen of her time, is noted primarily for her highly descriptive letters and is also remembered as a distinguished minor poet, an essayist, and a feminist. Her portrait by Kneller, labeled Lady Mary Pierpoint, her maiden name, was formerly in the collection of the Earl of Wharncliffe, a descendant. The principal painter of the English court under monarchs from Charles II to George I, Kneller became the director of the first Academy of Painting in London and had a strong influence on the subsequent generation of English portraitists.
Gift of Robert Halsband