Jervas was an Irish pupil of Kneller who succeeded him as Principal Painter to the King in 1723, but had very little encouragement in the role.

Dr Samuel Clarke is known today as a footnote to Pope’s line ‘Nor in a hermitage set Dr. Clark’ (‘Epistle to Lord Burlington’, l 78), which criticised Queen Caroline for including Clarke in the company of Newton and others in her Hermitage at Richmond. In fact Clarke was a distinguished theologian, scholar, philosopher and natural scientist, who studied with Newton and corresponded with Leibniz. In his theological works he attempted to defend Anglican doctrine in a rationalist manner, making him an influential enlightenment thinker. Queen Anne made Clarke one of her chaplains in Ordinary and in 1709 he was made rector of St James’s Piccadilly. Queen Caroline’s admiration for him is demonstrated by the Hermitage and by this painting, with its eulogistic inscription written by Benjamin Hoadley (1676-1761), which was hung at Kensington Palace.

Clarke is shown with a bust of Newton, below which are arranged four books: Bacon’s ‘Essays’, Boyle’s ‘Lectures’, Newton’s ‘Principia’ and ‘Optica’ (presumably Clarke’s Latin translation of his ‘Opticks’).