Sir Christopher Wren

Godfrey Kneller's portrait of Sir Christopher Wren of 1711 depicts Britain's most celebrated architect at seventy-nine, the designer of St Paul's Cathedral and fifty-one London churches rebuilt after the Great Fire still working as Surveyor of the King's Works. Kneller's portrait captures the aged architect with the gravity appropriate to a man who had created the most recognizable built environment in London's history, his face showing the patience and determination that had sustained thirty-five years of St Paul's construction. The portrait documents one of British architecture's foundational figures at the end of his remarkable career.

Kneller renders the aging architect with his practiced, fluent technique, capturing Wren's intellectual alertness and dignity. The warm palette and the simple composition focus attention on the celebrated face.