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Notes
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A head-and-shoulders portrait to right, in a natural-coloured coat and with a long white beard. This portrait was originally on a narrow oblong canvas but it is now in an oval with small additions on each side. Worley was one of the first pensioners to be admitted to Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich when its King Charles Court began receiving them in 1705. He had been at sea for 70 years, apparently once in the coal trade but later in the Navy, and was twice mentioned in the early records of the Hospital as being punished for drunkenness and disruptive behaviour. The painting shows him at the age of 96, posed as the model for the figure of 'Winter' in the ceiling of the Painted Hall at Greenwich, which Thornhill commenced painting in 1708.
Thornhill was a portrait and history painter, the most successful painter of decorative interiors of the English school, and the first native British artist to be knighted (1720). Using the apotheosis of William and Mary as the central theme, his ceiling at Greenwich is regarded as one of his greatest achievements and is an important example of eighteenth-century English history painting, the most elevated and morally instructive genre of painting. This oil study of Worley was presented to Greenwich Hospital by Thornhill himself and is one of its earliest pictures.
Title
John Worley (1624–1721)
Date
1720 (?)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 73.5 x W 61 cm
Accession number
BHC3102
Acquisition method
National Maritime Museum (Greenwich Hospital Collection)
Work type
Painting
National Maritime Museum
Romney Road, Greenwich, London, Greater London SE10 9NF England
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