Edward Byng (ca. 1676 – 1753), sometimes spelt Bing, was an English portrait artist.
Thought to be a native of Wiltshire, Byng trained as an artiste and became an partner to Godfrey Kneller practically 1693. Another pupil of Kneller, Robert Byng (fl. 1697-1720) was his brother. At the times of Kneller’s death in 1723 Byng was his chief accomplice and lived subsequent to him at a house in Great Queen Street. Kneller’s will recorded that Byng had “for many years faithfully served me”, gave him a income of £100 a year and entrusted him bearing in mind seeing that Kneller’s unfinished be in was completed, for which he would get the outstanding payments. Byng also inherited drawings in Kneller’s studio, many now in the British Museum. He well ahead lived at Potterne, near Devizes, where he died in 1753 and was buried.
The British Museum holds a large deposit of Byng’s sketchbooks and drawings. Like John James Backer he was a drapery painter for Kneller.
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