ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (1728=1779) Louis de Visme (1762-67) Oil on canvas (129 x 83 cm) Christ Church College, Oxford (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") Another example of Mengs' excellence as a portraitist. The portrait must have been painted between 1762 and 1767, the years when de …
The Earl of Chesterfield
WILLIAM HOARE RA (1707-1792) Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Pastel on paper (66.7 x 48.6 cm) Location unknown To enlarge the images, right-click on them and choose "Open in a new tab" William Hoare is the kind of artist that deserves to be better known. Unfortunately, for him, he was the contemporary of Sir …
An Irish Gentleman
ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (1728-1759) William Burton Conyngham Pastel on paper (65 x 48.5 cm) Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") Pastel was a very popular medium among artists in the XVIII century. Mengs had made his name as a pastelist in Dresden, …
The Aristocratic Musician
JEAN-MARC NATTIER (1685-1766) Francis Greville, 8th Baron Brooke, later 1st Earl of Warwick (1741) Oil on canvas (137 x 107 cm) Private collection (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") Jean-Marc Nattier is almost unknown to the majority of English-speaking art lovers, This is a consequence of the …
The Noble Musician
POMPEO BATONI (1708-1787) John Montagu, Marquess of Monthermer (1758) Oil on canvas (96.5 x 71 cm) The Duke of Buccleuch (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") In my previous post, The Marquess of Monthermer, I mentioned that the young Lord Brudenell commissioned portraits from Batoni and Mengs. …
The Marquess of Monthermer
ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (1728-1779) John Brudenell-Montague, later Marquess of Monthermer (1758) Oil on canvas (244 x 171 cm) The Duke of Buccleuch (To enlarge the image, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") John Lord Brudenell (1735-1770), who wore the title of Marquess of Monthermer from 1766, was the only son of …
Anton Raphael Mengs
ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (1728-1779) Self-portrait (1774) Oil on canvas (73.5 x 56 cm) Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") Mengs was described by his contemporary Johann Winckelmann as "the greatest artist of his time and perhaps of succeeding times, reborn like a …
Triple Portrait of Charles I
ANTON VAN DYCK (1599-1641) Triple portrait of Charles I (1635-36) Oil on canvas (84.5 x 99.5 cm) Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") The painting was probably begun in the second half of 1635. In his letter to Lorenzo Bernini of 17 March …
A medieval epic
PIER FRANCESCO MOLA (1612-1666) Erminia and Vanfrino tending the wounded Tancred (c.1653) Oil on canvas: 69 x 92 cm The Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") Born in a small village near Lugano, Pier Francesco Mola moved to cosmopolitan Rome with …
A dashing Guards officer
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792) Captain George K. H. Coussmaker (1782) Oil on canvas (238 x 145 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab" Painted in 1782, this is one of Reynolds' finest works. He devoted an exceptionally large number of sittings …
Old Masters 