EDWARD BYNG (1676-1753)

STUDIO STUDIES AFTER KNELLER'S 'KIT KAT CLUB' PORTRAITS OF LORD CHARLES MOHUN & GEORGE STEPNEY
Each inscribed with the sitter's name
Grey wash heightened with white, with pen & ink, on blue paper
 
PROVENANCE:
Iolo Williams (1890-1962), London;
Thence by descent
 
 
 
 
Edward Byng was the principal studio assistant for Sir Godfrey Kneller, having begun his employment under the great portraitist in 1693 as a general assistant and later as a drapery painter. Byng was a close colleague of Kneller’s until the latter’s death in 1723, whereupon his mentor left him an annuity of £100 (a considerable sum) and requested that he complete any unfinished works and receive the payments due for them. Alongside this remarkable legacy, Byng inherited all of Kneller’s studio drawings, recording poses, sitters and details for his painted portraits. 
 
Today, we only know Byng’s draughtsmanship through the surviving studio copies after Kneller’s paintings, such as the present pair. The British Museum hold a large group of these, contained in bound volumes, as well as various academic studies of a similar manner. Some scholars have debated whether or not a number of these drawings should be attributed instead to Edward’s brother Robert (c.1668-1720), who also worked for a time as a studio assistant to Kneller, however the broad consensus is that these highly-distinctive pen & ink drawings on blue paper should be assigned to Edward. 
 
 
This particular pair are especially exciting as records of Kneller's activity, being copies after two portraits from the artist's most famous portrait series, the 'Kit Kat Portraits'. The ‘Kit Kat Club’ was a Whig dining club, founded to uphold the principles of the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 and the Protestant succession. The club was founded by John Somers, the Lord Chancellor, and the publisher Jacob Tonson, and took its name from the mutton pies served at its first meeting place, Christopher Cat’s tavern near the Temple. In later years, the members would meet at Tonson’s house in Barn Elms, where a special room was built to house all of Kneller’s portraits of the members. Almost all of the portraits now belong to the National Portrait Gallery in London, with some displayed at Benningbrough Hall in Yorkshire. They are notable for their format - more than a head & shoulders but less than half length - and their uniform size, which differed from the standard canvas size of the day (supposedly due to the height of Tonson’s ceilings). 
 
 
Lord Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun of Okehampton (c.1675-1712), was a politician, but was far better-known as a notorious gambler and duellist, who spent most of his life vying for and then defending his inheritance. He narrowly avoided murder charges - he was controversially acquitted by the House of Lords - and would eventually die in a duel with James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, who also died from his wounds. His legacy was that the use of both swords and seconds was banned in British duels, such were the grotesque injuries sustained from the combat. 
 
George Stepney (1663-1707) was a poet and diplomat, born into a prominent family of gentry attached to the Court, and was a noted scholar at Westminster and later Trinity College, Cambridge. Stepney entered the diplomatic service and, in 1692, was sent as envoy to the court at Brandenburg. He went on to represent the King at several further German courts, before being sent to Vienna in 1702. Following disagreements with Prince Eugene of Savoy, Stepney was sent to the Hagye in 1706, but severe illness forced his return to England, where he died and was buried in Westminster Abbey.