Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/246

 the verses by Knell junior are characterised by a strong bias against the Roman catholics.

Thomas Knell, junior, has been erroneously identified by Collier with the (fl. 1586) mentioned (without a christian name) by Nashe in ‘Pierce Penilesse’ and by Heywood in his ‘Apology for Actors’ as a notable actor. Heywood speaks of him as dead before 1609. The actor seems to have been son of John Knell, a vintner, who was buried at St. James's, Garlick Hill, in 1574. He married at the same church one Alice Turner in 1568. John Heming or Hemminge [q. v.] the actor married in March 1587–8 Rebecca, widow of William Knell. Collier conjectures that the latter was the actor to whose christian name we have no other clue. If Collier be right, Rebecca Knell was the actor's second wife. In 1601 a player named Nill lived in Southwark, and had a child, Alice, baptised on 13 Aug. 

KNELL, WILLIAM ADOLPHUS (d. 1875), marine-painter, first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826, sending a view at Eastbourne. He was a clever painter of shipping and the sea, and a frequent contributor to the Royal Academy and the British Institution, sending to the former in 1835 ‘Folkestone from the Dover Road,’ in 1846 ‘Vessels off the Flemish Coast,’ in 1852 ‘The Action in which Van Tromp was killed,’ and in 1866 (the last year in which he exhibited) ‘Outward-bound Vessel entering Funchal, Madeira.’ Knell painted a picture of ‘The Landing of Prince Albert,’ which was purchased for the royal collection, and was engraved by Miller for the ‘Art Journal’ in 1857. He died on 10 July 1875, and was buried in the Abney Park cemetery, Stoke Newington. 

KNELLER, GODFREY, whose original name was  (1646–1723), painter, born at Lübeck in North Germany on 8 Aug. 1646, was third son of Zacharias Kniller and Lucia Beuten his wife. His father, born at Eisleben in Thuringia on 16 Nov. 1611, was son of a landed proprietor at Halle in Saxony, who was surveyor-general and inspector of revenues for the mines belonging to the Count Mansfeldt; he left Eisleben, possibly through the continued wars, and settled in Lübeck, where he practised as a portrait-painter, and from 1659 was master of the works to the church of St. Catherine. A portrait by him of Johannes Olearius was engraved. He married at Lübeck 31 Oct. 1639, and was the father of three sons, besides the eminent painter Johann, born 15 Dec. 1642, Johann Zacharias, born 6 Oct. 1644 (see below), and Andreas, born 23 Aug. 1649, afterwards organist to St. Peter's Church at Hamburg. The father died 4 April 1675, and was buried in St. Catherine's Church, where, in the following year, a portrait of him was painted and dedicated by his two painter-sons; a few portraits from his hand still exist at Lübeck.

Gottfried was destined for a military life, and was sent to Leyden to study mathematics and fortification. His inherited love of painting was, however, so strong that his father removed him to Amsterdam, where he became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol, with the additional privilege, as there seems no reason to doubt, of an occasional lesson in 1668 from the great Rembrandt himself. He then returned to Lübeck, where he soon found employment. Two portraits remain in the town library, one of an aged student, painted by Godfrey Kniller in 1668, and a companion portrait of a youthful scholar, by Godfrey's elder brother, John Zacharias, in the same year. Godfrey appears at first to have intended painting large scriptural or historical subjects in the style of Rembrandt's school, and one of ‘Tobit and the Angel,’ painted in 1672, remained in his own collection till his death. In 1672 the two brothers went to Italy to study historical painting. They first visited Rome, where Godfrey studied from the antique and the paintings of Raphael and the Carracci, and worked in the studios of Carlo Maratti and Bernini. The latter held him in high estimation. After spending some time in Naples they went to Venice, where Godfrey studied the works of Titian and Tintoretto, and laid the foundation of his future fame as a portrait-painter. There he was largely employed by the leading families, especially that of Bassadonna, for whom he painted a portrait of Cardinal Bassadonna, which was sent to Rome as a present to the pope. On his way home he visited Nuremberg, where he painted numerous portraits, and then found occupation at Hamburg. There he painted a large family portrait, which attracted much attention, for a wealthy merchant, Jacob del Böe, an amateur of art, who had inherited a valuable collection of Dutch paintings from his brother, Professor Sylvius of Leyden. The collection included fine works of Gerard Douw, Frans van Mieris, and others, and del