Credit: ©The Royal Society
Image number: RS.2125
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Portrait of Benjamin Keene
Date
1841
Sitter
Benjamin Keene (1697 - 1757, British) , Diplomat
Creator
William Camden Edwards (1777 - 1855, British) , Engraver
After
Louis Michel van Loo (1707 - 1771, French) , Painter
Object type
Image reference
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 298mm
width (print): 240mm
width (print): 240mm
Subject
Politics & Government
> Law and legislation
Politics & Government
> Political doctrines
> Colonialism
Politics & Government
> Slave trade
> Law and legislation
Politics & Government
> Political doctrines
> Colonialism
Politics & Government
> Slave trade
Description
Three quarter length portrait of Benjamin Keene in a brocaded coat and waistcoat bearing the ribbon and star of the Order of the Bath. The sitter wears a shoulder length grey wig and carries a tri-corner hat his left hand, leaning this against a chair-back. In his right hand is a paper bearing the inscription: “Serenisimo et Potentis- Principi D.Ferdinando Hispaniorum et India Regi Catholico &c.” An additional inscription appears above the sitter’s head: “Sir Benn, Keene K.B. Ambr. Extray. & Plenipoy. To the Court of Spain. Died at Madrid: 15th Decr. 1759 Aged 61”.
Inscribed below: “W.C.Edwards. aqua. fort. 1841. from the Picture in the Town Hall Lynn. Publshd. by C.Muskett, Norwich, 1841.”
Sir Benjamin Keene (1697–1757), British diplomat, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1745. In 1723 he was appointed an officer of the South Sea Company; established to hold commercial rights awarded to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, including their right to import and sell enslaved African people in the Spanish colonies. In 1724, he became Consul General in Spain.
Inscribed below: “W.C.Edwards. aqua. fort. 1841. from the Picture in the Town Hall Lynn. Publshd. by C.Muskett, Norwich, 1841.”
Sir Benjamin Keene (1697–1757), British diplomat, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1745. In 1723 he was appointed an officer of the South Sea Company; established to hold commercial rights awarded to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, including their right to import and sell enslaved African people in the Spanish colonies. In 1724, he became Consul General in Spain.
Transcription
W.C.Edwards. aqua. fort. 1841. from the Picture in the Town Hall Lynn. Publshd. by C.Muskett, Norwich, 1841
Object history
Noted in Catalogue of the prints in the possession of the Royal Society, by Henry George Plimmer FRS (1856-1918), manuscript, p.35. J.P.Gassiot Collection, purchased 1878.
Associated place