Richardson, Jonathan (1667-1745; English), after
Sir Richard Steele
Oil on canvas, mounted on plywood, 75.3 x 64.3 cm
Presented by W.A.C. A’Beckett, 1889
National Gallery of Victoria (p.314.7-1)

This portrait of Steele, a noted Irish dramatist and essayist (1672-1729), was initially attributed to Godfrey Kneller (thus in NGV 1894), but subsequently identified in NGV 1905 as a copy of Richardson’s original painting of 1712 (National Gallery, London). Ursula Hoff notes Tomory & Gaston’s view that the NGV work may have been painted by noted 18th-century copyist Isaac Whood (1688-?1752).

See linked entry for further details on the donor, the father of Emma Minnie Boyd: see Boyd (E.) To the Workhouse 1891 {1893} NGV [PA].

Refs.

AR 1889, p.43 (as attrib.to Kneller) NGV 1894, p.123 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 7th bay, no.10: also attrib.to Kneller); NGV 1905, p.142 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 6th bay, no.14) 

See Tomory & Gaston (1989), cat.135, and Hoff (1995), p.244, citing earlier NGV catalogues

For Richardson, see Bénézit 11, pp.1003-4; AKL 98 (2018), p.422; and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Richardson