John Vanderbank (1694-1739) “The Embarkation of King Charles ll” Oil Painting

A Superb Oil Painting by the British Master John Vanderbank (1694-1739) “The Embarkation of King Charles ll”.Vanderbank was a leading British Portrait painter in the early 18th Century, who enjoyed a high reputation for a short while during the reign of King George I, but who died relatively young due to an intemperate and extravagant lifestyle. He died of tuberculosis in Holies Street, Cavendish Square, London, on 23 December 1739 (aged 45) and was buried in Marylebone church. Vanderbank’s portraits, among which are those of many eminent persons, are skilfully drawn and full of character, but slight and careless in execution. He had a great talent for historical composition, and Vertue spoke highly of some of his works of this class. Vanderbank’s book illustrations include: the portrait of Sir Isaac Newton used in the frontispiece of the 1726 edition of Principia; the 66 plates of the first edition in Spanish of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote published in London (1738); and illustrations for ‘Twenty-five Actions of the Manage Horse, engraved by Josephus Sympson (1729). His 1725 portrait of Sir Isaac Newton hangs in Trinity College, Cambridge. Many of his portraits were engraved by John Faber Jr. and George White. Vanderbank was amongst a group of artists painted by William Hogarth, of which there is an engraving by R. Sawyer.