William Walsh

Image credit: National Portrait Gallery, London

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William Walsh divided his time between his family home in Worcestershire and London, where he was a well-known wit and 'man about town'. He mixed with many prominent literary figures, including the poet William Congreve and the playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh, fellow members of the Kit-cat Club with whom he wrote a comic play in 1704. Walsh died aged forty-six, having never married. He wrote of love: 'there is not one folly of that kind (excepting marriage) which I have not already committed'.
This portrait was probably begun in the year Walsh died. It was left unfinished by Kneller, with only the face painted, and was completed by another painter in the 1730s or 1740s.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

William Walsh

Date

c.1708 & 1730s/1740s

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 91.4 x W 71.1 cm

Accession number

3232

Acquisition method

Given by the Art Fund, 1945. On long-term loan to Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire

Work type

Painting

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