![John Greenhill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/John_Greenhill.jpg)
John Greenhill (c. 1644 – 19 May 1676) was an English portrait painter, a pupil of
Peter Lely, who approached his teacher in artistic excellence, but whose life was cut short by a dissolute lifestyle.
Life and work
Greenhill was born at
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
, Wiltshire around 1644, the eldest son of John Greenhill, registrar of the diocese of Salisbury, and Penelope Champneys, daughter of Richard Champneys of
Orchardleigh, Somerset. His father was connected through his brothers with the
East India
East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha
and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magadh ...
trade. John's younger brother
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
became
Governor of the Gold Coast
This is a list of colonial administrators in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) from the start of English presence in 1621 until Ghana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. In addition to the Gold Coast Colony, the governor of the Gold Coast ...
and a commissioner of the Navy.
Greenhill was educated at
Salisbury Cathedral School
Salisbury Cathedral School is a co-educational independent school in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, which was founded in 1091 by Saint Osmund. The choristers of Salisbury Cathedral are educated at the school.
History
The school was founded i ...
. His first attempt at a portrait was one of his paternal uncle James Abbott of Salisbury, whom he is said to have sketched surreptitiously, as the old man would not sit for him. About 1662 he moved to London and became a pupil of
Peter Lely. His progress was rapid, and he acquired some of Lely's skill and method. He carefully studied
Vandyck's portraits, and
George Vertue
George Vertue (1684 – 24 July 1756) was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.
Life
Vertue was born in 1684 in St Martin-in-the-Fields, ...
commented that he copied so closely Vandyck's portrait of "Thomas Killigrew and his dog" that it was difficult to know which was the original. Vertue also says that his progress excited Lely's jealousy.
Greenhill was at first industrious, and married early. But a taste for poetry and drama, and living in
Covent Garden in the vicinity of the theatres, led him to associate with many members of the free-living theatrical world, and he fell into "irregular habits". On 19 May 1676, while returning from the Vine Tavern (in
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its root ...
) in a state of intoxication, he fell into the gutter in
Long Acre
Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its coach-makers, and la ...
, and was carried to his lodgings in
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
, where he died the same night. He was buried in
St Giles in the Fields church. He left a widow and family, to whom Lely gave an annuity.
Among Greenhill's personal admirers was dramatist
Aphra Behn, who kept up an amorous correspondence with him, and lamented his early death in a fulsome
panegyric.
Portraits
![Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Anthony_Ashley-Cooper%2C_1st_Earl_of_Shaftesbury.jpg)
Greenhill's portraits are of great merit, often approaching those of Lely in excellence. Among his chief sitters were
Bishop Seth Ward, in the Guildhall at Salisbury, painted in 1673;
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury PC FRS (22 July 1621 – 21 January 1683; known as Anthony Ashley Cooper from 1621 to 1630, as Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Baronet from 1630 to 1661, and as The Lord Ashley from 1661 to 1 ...
, painted more than once during his chancellorship in 1672 (engraved by
Abraham Blooteling);
John Locke, who wrote some verses in Greenhill's praise (engraved by Pieter van Gunst); Sir
William D'Avenant (engraved by
William Faithorne
William Faithorne, often "the Elder" (161613 May 1691), was an English painter and engraver.
Life
Faithorne was born in London and was apprenticed to William Peake. On the outbreak of the Civil War Faithorne accompanied his master into the ...
); Philip Woolrich (engraved in
mezzotint
Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...
by
Francis Place
Francis Place (3 November 1771 in London – 1 January 1854 in London) was an English social reformer.
Early life
He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and Mary Gray. His father was originally a journeyman baker. He then became a Marshalse ...
); poet
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley (; 161828 July 1667) was an English poet and essayist born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his ''Works'' published between 1668 and 1721.
Early ...
, Admiral
Edward Spragge
Sir Edward Spragge (name also written as Spragg or Sprague) (circa 1620 – 21 August 1673) was an Irish-born English admiral of the Royal Navy. He was a fiery, brilliantly accomplished seaman who fought in many great actions after the restoratio ...
and others.
Greenhill painted a self-portrait, now hanging in the
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest pub ...
in London
John Greenhill - Self portrait
(Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest pub ...
). (engraved in Wornum's edition of Horace Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting"). He also drew a portrait of himself, as did Lely.
References
External links
John Greenhill online
(ArtCyclopedia)
Portraits by John Greenhill
(National Portrait Gallery, London)
Drawing of John Locke
(Peter Mould Fine paintings)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenhill, John
1676 deaths
17th-century English painters
English male painters
English portrait painters
People educated at Salisbury Cathedral School
People from Salisbury
Year of birth uncertain