Explore: Bartholomew Dandridge

(1691 - c.1754)

Portrait painter Bartholomew Dandridge was born in London; the son of a house painter. From 1712 he studied at Kneller's academy and later at the St Martin's Lane Academy. For more than 40 years Dandridge ran a successful and fashionable portrait practice. However, he is now best-known for conversation pieces in the rococo style. In 1731 he purchased the studio and house of Godfrey Kneller in Great Queen Street. He received a commission to paint Frederick, Prince of Wales on horseback in 1732 (National Portrait Gallery), for which the prince sat three times. During the 1730s he produced designs for book plates, in particular twelve for François Nivelon’s ‘Rudiments of Genteel Behaviour’ (1737). His last recorded work was painted in 1754.