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unusual facts about Society of Dilettanti


George Knapton

George Knapton (1698–1778) was an English portrait painter and the first portraitist for the Society of Dilettanti in the 1740s.


Cecil Harcourt Smith

As well as contributing to many of the British Museum departmental catalogues, he wrote for the art journals and also published a number of monographs: 'The Collection of J Pierpont Morgan' (1913), 'The Art Treasures of the Nation' (1929), and 'The Society of the Dilettanti: it's Regalia and Pictures' (1932).

John Stanton Ward

He made illustrations for a number of large companies - BP, Shell, Whitbread - and undertook portraits of royalty, cabinet ministers, city businessmen, and celebrities - Joyce Grenfell, Sir Michael Adeane, Sir Roger Bannister, Lord Denning, Norman Parkinson and Sir Arthur Norrington - and for members of the Society of Dilettanti and of Annabel's.


see also