Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/King, John (1788-1847)
KING, JOHN (1788–1847), painter, was born at Dartmouth in 1788, and at the age of twenty entered the schools of the Royal Academy. He first exhibited at the British Institution in 1814 and at the Academy in 1817, and throughout his life was a frequent contributor to both of biblical, Shakespearean, and historical subjects, as well as of portraits. Meeting with little success in London he paid frequent and extended visits to Bristol, where his art was better appreciated; for St. Thomas's Church in that city he painted in 1828 the ‘Incredulity of St. Thomas,’ and for St. Mark's Chapel the ‘Dead Christ surrounded by His Disciples.’ For the former, a very large but poor work, he received 200l.; the latter is smaller and of better quality. King also painted the portraits of many of the leading citizens of Bristol, and he is referred to in ‘Felix Farley's Rhymes’ as a member of the ‘Bristol School.’ His portrait of the Rev. Henry Francis Lyte [q. v.] the hymn-writer has been engraved by G. H. Phillips. King died of apoplexy at Dartmouth 12 July 1847.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, 17 July 1847; British Institution and Royal Academy Catalogues; George's Lyte's Cary Manor House, 1879, p. 11; information from the Rev. C. Taylor, vicar of St. Thomas's, Bristol.]