Location: National Portrait Gallery, London, Great Britain
Date: 1776
Medium: Pastel
Dimensions: 24 x 18.7 inches
You can find more information on the National Portrait Gallery website here.
Joseph Kelway (1702–1782) was a highly regarded English organist and harpsichordist. Born in Chichester, he studied under his brother Thomas and Francesco Geminiani.
He was the younger brother of the organist Thomas Kelway, and studied with him and the Francesco Geminiani, an Italian violinist, composer and music theorist once described by BBC Radio 3 as “now largely forgotten, but in his time considered almost a musical god, deemed to be the equal of Handel and Corelli”.
In 1736, Kelway became the organist at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, where his virtuosic improvisations drew notable admirers, including Handel. In 1739, he co-founded the Royal Society of Musicians and became a leader of the “Scarlatti sect,” a group of musicians dedicated to performing Domenico Scarlatti’s complex works with precision.
Kelway also went on to teach pupils such as prolific methodist hymnwriter Charles Wesley, and in 1761, he was appointed harpsichord master to Queen Charlotte. Toward the end of his life, Kelway’s style faded from prominence as Johann Christian Bach popularised a new musical direction and the pianoforte grew in fashion.
