English painter. He was the son of a house painter in London and first studied at Kneller's Academy from 1712 and later at the St Martin's Lane Academy under John Vanderbank (active 1689-1727) and Louis Chéron (1660-1725). His patrons in the 1720s included Capt. Richard Gifford, of whom he painted a small equestrian portrait (c. 1725; London, National Army Museum). In 1731 he took over Kneller's former studio and began painting large-scale portraits. His developing French style earned him the patronage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, as evidenced by a small portrait (c. 1732; London, National Portrait Gallery). Although he was trained in the relatively dull style of the school of Kneller, he was amongst the first in England to respond to the innovations of the Rococo which were being imported into England from France in the early and mid 1730s. These have a liveliness of composition and lightness and freshness of palette which divides them absolutely from the style of the 1720s. //