The Cosmopolitan Brush: Godfrey Kneller and the Shaping of English Portraiture Godfrey Kneller, born in Lübeck, Germany, in 1646, wasn’t merely a painter who found success on English shores; he was an architect of its artistic identity. His arrival in London around 1676, following periods of study and work in Italy and France, coincided with a burgeoning desire for a distinctly English style – one that moved beyond the imitation of co…