GEORGE KNAPTON (British, 1698-1778) Portrait of the Reverend John Upton of Taunton in Academic Robes signed and dated 'Knapton / 1740 / pinxt' (lower left); inscribed 'Jo.n Upton' (center right); attributed on a presentation plaque; with two labels from Lane Fine Art, London (affixed to the reverse of the frame and the stretcher); with an auction label from Stair Galleries, New York (affixed to the frame) oil on canvas 75.5 x 63.0 cm (29 3/4 x 24 13/16 in). framed 93.5 x 81.0 x 4.5 cm (36 13/16 x 31 7/8 x 1 3/4 in). Footnotes: Provenance Sale, Sotheby's, London, 1932, lot 74. Lane Fine Art, London, by 1995. Sale, Stair Galleries, Hudson, New York, June 24, 2017. Sometime after to the present private Massachusetts collection. Literature Sir Ellis Waterhouse, Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters, 1981, illus. p. 200. N.B. Reverend John Upton of Taunton (1707-1760) was an English clergyman and academic. He was one of the early editors of Edmund Spenser and wrote the edits for, among others, the 1758 edition of Spenser's The Faerie Queen (publ. 1590-1596). In his notes Upton attempted to link the poem to events in Spenser's own life, and characters in the poem with real historical figures. Upton was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow of Exeter College in 1728. He received his B.A. in 1730 and his M.A. in 1732. He subsequently was given the rectory at Seavington with Donnington in Somerset, and later the rectory of Great Rissington, Gloucestershire. By 1737, he was admitted canon of Rochester. He died unmarried in Taunton in 1760. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing