Works
Approximately five hundred portraits are attributed to Vertue, a similar number of published plates were devoted to antiquarian subjects. Many of the portraits were printed as frontispieces, most are regarded as accurate representations of the subject and many are not without artistic merit.
Vertue's works of portraiture include:
- A portrait of Archbishop Tillotson, after Kneller, commissioned by John Somers, 1st Baron Somers
- The head of George I of Great Britain, produced on his accession to the throne, a work that established his reputation.
- Twelve Heads of Poets, set of plates issued 1730
- Rapin's History of England, Knapton Brothers edition, 1736. A task that took three years. The same publisher commissioned plates for Thomas Birch's Heads of Illustrious Persons, though his contribution is submerged by the popularity of Houbraken's "brilliant but less truthful productions".
As official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, with works relating to this field of natural history, Vertue was prolific: Richard II at Westminster; a view of Waltham Cross; the shrine of Edward the Confessor; are notable mentions from his works in Vetusta Monumenta
He executed a series of nine Historic Prints in 1740, imitations of works from the Tudor period, these included Visit of Queen Elizabeth to Blackfriars (miscalled the Procession to Hunsdon House); Henry VII and his Queen, with Henry VIII and Jane Seymour; The Cenotaph of Lord Darnley; and Edward VI granting a Charter to Bridewell Hospital. The copperplates of these were acquired by the Society of Antiquaries, and reprinted in 1776.
His publications include A Description of the Works of Wenceslaus Hollar, 1745 (reprinted 1759); and Medals, Coins, Great Seals, Impressions from the Works of Thomas Simon, 1753 (reprinted 1780). Vertue was also involved with the pre-production of surveys of royal collections, Vanderdoort's catalogue of the collection of Charles I, Chiffinch's James II collection and his on that of Queen Caroline at Kensington; these saw print after his death, prefaced by Walpole.
Horace Walpole purchased Vertue's notebooks after his death. Although disorderly and mainly unreflective, Walpole based his Anecdotes of Painting in England (5 vols., 1762-1771) on these notes. The original wording of the manuscripts was only published in the 20th century by the Walpole Society.
The Dictionary of National Biography, 1900, makes special note of one reproduction by Vertue, in the article on Ralph Agas,
"In 1737 George Vertue, the engraver and antiquary, published a pretended copy of Agas's map of London, stating that it was executed in 1560, and that it gave a true representation of the metropolis as it existed at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Vertue crowned his pretended copy with the date 1560 in Roman numerals, made palpable alterations and omissions in order that he might retain the delusive date, and took other unwarrantable liberties with the object of disguising the fraud. The unhappy result of this tinkering of the original design was that numerous subsequent antiquaries were victims of the deception. Mr. Overall is of opinion that Vertue, having become possessed of the parts of a copy of the map made by some unknown Dutch engraver in the reign of William III, caused them to be "tinkered," probably for the purpose of deceiving his antiquarian friends. Of course the numerous copies of the spurious map issued by Vertue are of little or no value; …"
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