Joseph Highmore

Kingdom of Great Britain · 1692–1780

Joseph Highmore was an English painter of portraits, conversation pieces and history subjects, illustrator and writer. After retiring from his career as a painter at the age of 70, he published art historical and critical articles. == Life == Highmore was born on 13 June 1692, in London, the third son of Edward Highmore, a coal merchant, and nephew of Thomas Highmore, Serjeant Painter to William III. He displayed early his ability in art but was discouraged by his family from taking up art professionally, and began a legal training instead. At the ending of a clerkship at the age of 17 (during which he continued to attend a drawing academy run by Godfrey Kneller and lectures on anatomy by William Cheselden), he abandoned his law career and started to work as a portrait painter in London.

Independent artist guide by Momentable. Biography from Wikipedia; artworks credited to the museums that hold them.