KNELLER, SIR GODFREY (1648–1723), a portrait painter whose celebrity belongs chiefly to England, was born in Lübeck in the duchy of Holstein, of an ancient family, on the 8th of August 1648. He was at first intended for the army, and was sent to Leyden to learn mathematics and fortification. Showing, however, a marked preference for the fine arts, he studied in the school of Rembrandt, and under Ferdinand Bol in Amsterdam. In 1672 he removed to Italy, directing his chief attention to Titian and the Caracci; Carlo Maratta gave him some guidance and encouragement. In Rome, and more especially in Venice, Kneller earned considerable reputation by historical paintings as well as portraits. He next went to Hamburg, painting with still increasing success. In 1674 he came to England at the invitation of the duke of Monmouth, was introduced to Charles II., and painted that sovereign, much to his satisfaction, several times. Charles also sent him to Paris, to take the portrait of Louis XIV. When Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, Kneller, who produced in England little or nothing in the historical department, remained without a rival in the ranks of portrait painting; there was no native-born competition worth speaking of. Charles appointed him court painter; and he continued to hold the same post into the days of George I. Under William III. (1692) he was made a knight, under George I. (1715) a baronet, and by order of the emperor Leopold I. a knight of the Roman Empire. Not only his court favour but his general fame likewise was large: he was lauded by Dryden, Addison, Steele, Prior, Tickell and Pope. Kneller’s gains also were very considerable; aided by habits of frugality which approached stinginess, he left property yielding an annual income of £2000. His industry was maintained till the last. His studio had at first been in Covent Garden, but in his closing years he lived in Kneller Hall, Twickenham. He died of fever, the date being generally given as the 7th of November 1723, though some accounts say 1726. He was buried in Twickenham church, and has a monument in Westminster Abbey. An elder brother, John Zachary Kneller, an ornamental painter, had accompanied Godfrey to England, and had died in 1702. The style of Sir Godfrey Kneller as a portrait painter represented the decline of that art as practised by Vandyck; Lely marks the first grade of descent, and Kneller the second. His works have much freedom, and are well drawn and coloured; but they are mostly slight in manner, and to a great extent monotonous, this arising partly from the habit which he had of lengthening the oval of all his heads. The colouring may be called brilliant rather than true. He indulged much in the common-places of allegory; and, though he had a quality of dignified elegance not unallied with simplicity, genuine simple nature is seldom to be traced in his works. His fame has greatly declined, and could not but do so after the advent of Reynolds. Among Kneller’s principal paintings are the “Forty-three Celebrities of the Kit-Cat Club,” and the “Ten Beauties of the Court of William III.,” now at Hampton Court; these were painted by order of the queen; they match, but match unequally, the “Beauties of the Court of Charles II.,” painted by Lely. He executed altogether the likenesses of ten sovereigns, and fourteen of his works appear in the National Portrait Gallery. It is said that Kneller’s own favourite performance was the portrait of the “Converted Chinese” in Windsor Castle. His later works are confined almost entirely to England, not more than two or three specimens having gone abroad after he had settled here. (W. M. R.)
KNICKERBOCKER, HARMEN JANSEN (c. 1650–c. 1720),
Dutch colonist of New Netherland (New York), was a native of
Wyhe (Wie), Overyssel, Holland. Before 1683 he settled near
what is now Albany, New York, and there in 1704 he bought
through Harme Gansevoort one-fourth of the land in Dutchess
county near Red Hook, which had been patented in 1688 to
Peter Schuyler, who in 1722 deeded seven (of thirteen) lots in the
upper fourth of his patent to the seven children of Knickerbocker.
The eldest of these children, Johannes Harmensen, received from
the common council of the city of Albany a grant of 50 acres of
meadow and 10 acres of upland on the south side of Schaghticoke
Creek. This Schaghticoke estate was held by Johannes
Harmensen’s son Johannes (1723–1802), a colonel in the Continental
Army in the War of Independence, and by his son
Harmen (1779–1855), a lawyer, a federalist representative in
Congress in 1809–1811, a member of the New York Assembly
in 1816, and a famous gentleman of the old school, who for his
courtly hospitality in his manor was called “the prince of
Schaghticoke” and whose name was borrowed by Washington
Irving for use in his (Diedrich) Knickerbocker’s History of New
York (1809). Largely owing to this book, the name “Knickerbockers”
has passed into current use as a designation of the
early Dutch settlers in New York and their descendants. The
son of Johannes, David Buel Knickerbacker (1833–1894), who
returned to the earlier spelling of the family name, graduated
at Trinity College in 1853 and at the General Theological
Seminary in 1856, was a rector for many years at Minneapolis,
Minnesota, and in 1883 was consecrated Protestant Episcopal
bishop of Indiana.
See the series of articles by W. B. Van Alstyne on “The Knickerbocker Family,” beginning in vol. xxix., No. 1 (Jan. 1908) of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.
KNIFE (O.E. cníf, a word appearing in different forms in
many Teutonic languages, cf. Du. knijf, Ger. Kneif, a shoemaker’s
knife, Swed. knif; the ultimate origin is unknown;
Skeat finds the origin in the root of “nip,” formerly “knip”;
Fr. canif is also of Teutonic origin), a small cutting instrument,
with the blade either fixed to the handle or fastened with a hinge
so as to clasp into the handle (see Cutlery). For the knives
chipped from flint by prehistoric man see Archaeology and
Flint Implements.
KNIGGE, ADOLF FRANZ FRIEDRICH, Freiherr von (1752–1796),
German author, was born on the family estate of Bredenbeck
near Hanover on the 16th of October 1752. After studying
law at Göttingen he was attached successively to the courts of
Hesse-Cassel and Weimar as gentleman-in-waiting. Retiring
from court service in 1777, he lived a private life with his family
in Frankfort-on-Main, Hanau, Heidelberg and Hanover until
1791, when he was appointed Oberhauptmann (civil administrator)
in Bremen, where he died on the 6th of May 1796.
Knigge, under the name “Philo,” was one of the most active
members of the Illuminati, a mutual moral and intellectual
improvement society founded by Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830)
at Ingolstadt, and which later became affiliated to the Freemasons.
Knigge is known as the author of several novels, among
which Der Roman meines Lebens (1781–1787; new ed., 1805)
and Die Reise nach Braunschweig (1792), the latter a rather
coarsely comic story, are best remembered. His chief literary
achievement was, however, Über den Umgang mit Menschen
(1788), in which he lays down rules to be observed for a peaceful,
happy and useful life; it has been often reprinted.
Knigge’s Schriften were published in 12 volumes (1804–1806). See K. Goedeke, Adolf, Freiherr von Knigge (1844); and H. Klencke, Aus einer alten Kiste (Briefe, Handschriften und Dokumente aus dem Nachlasse Knigges) (1853).
KNIGHT, CHARLES (1791–1873), English publisher and
author, the son of a bookseller and printer at Windsor, was
born on the 15th of March 1791. He was apprenticed to his
father, but on the completion of his indentures he took up
journalism and interested himself in several newspaper speculations.
In 1823, in conjunction with friends he had made
as publisher (1820–1821) of The Etonian, he started Knight’s
Quarterly Magazine, to which W. M. Praed, Derwent Coleridge
and Macaulay contributed. The venture was brought to
a close with its sixth number, but it initiated for Knight a
career as publisher and author which extended over forty
years. In 1827 Knight was compelled to give up his publishing
business, and became the superintendent of the publications
of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, for
which he projected and edited The British Almanack and
Companion, begun in 1828. In 1829 he resumed business
on his own account with the publication of The Library of
Entertaining Knowledge, writing several volumes of the series
himself. In 1832 and 1833 he started The Penny Magazine and
