THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH Grace Dalrymple Elliot (c.1778) Oil on canvas (76 x 63 cm) The Frick Collection, New York To enlarge the image, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" It is very difficult to do justice to Gainsborough's portraits, sometimes it seems that there are not enough words in the English language to …
Tag: English portrait painters
John Palmer
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1727-1788) Portrait of John Palmer (c.1775) Oil on canvas 76 x 63,8 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" John Palmer (1743-1818) is remembered in the history of the English stage as the manager of the Bath Theatre in Orchard Street, which, …
An Elderly Lady
GEORGE BEARE (?-1749) Portrait of an Elderly Lady and a Girl (1747) Oil on canvas (127 x 102 cm) Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" George Beare's distinctive Portrait of an Elderly Lady and a Girl is unquestionably his masterpiece. …
An English Beauty
SIR PETER LELY Diana Kirke, later Countess of Oxford (1665-70) Oil on canvas (135 x 108 cm) Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" The portrait of Diana Kirke is one of Lely's most sensuous and beautiful. It exemplifies his lush …
A Modest Gentleman
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH William Johnstone-Pulteney, later 5th Baronet (1772) Oil on canvas (237 x 150 cm) Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" In an undated letter addressed by Gainsborough to Johnstone-Pulteney, the artist reveals how much did he care for his …
The Harley Sisters
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH Anne Harley, Lady Rodney (1758-1840) Martha Harley, Mrs. George Drummond (1757-1788) To enlarge the pictures, right-click on them and "Open in a new tab" It has been said, and I agree with it, that Gainsborough was at his best when portraying women. There is a certain charm that enhances their beauty, the poses …
A Drawing Lesson
JOSEPH WRIGHT ARA (1734-1797) Academy by Lamplight (1768-69) Oil on canvas (127 x 101 cm) Yale Center of British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" Born to a family of lawyers Joseph Wright decided to become a painter and in 1751 set off to …
Hogarth’s Portrait
WILLIAM HOGARTH (1697-1764) Self-portrait (1730's) Oil on canvas 54 x 51 cm Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA Hogarth was among the most skilled, financially astute, and patriotic artists of his generation. Much of his subject matter was inspired by his own difficult childhood, marked strongly by his father's confinement to the debtor's …
Portrait of an Actress
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (1723-1792) Mrs Abington as Miss Prue in “Love for Love” (1771) Oil on canvas (77 x 64 cm) Yale Center for British Art, Yale, Connecticut, USA To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" When this portrait was shown as Portrait of a Lady at the third …
Mary Little
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1727-1788) Mary Little, later Lady Carr (1763) Oil on canvas (127 x 101 cm) Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA To enlarge the image, right-click on it and "Open in a new tab" This painting may have been commissioned to celebrate the marriage of Mary Little to Robert Carr, who …
Old Masters 