Georgian Portraits at Compton Verney

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Georgian Portraits Seeing is Believing Large print version available at the Ticket Desk

Georgian Portraits: Seeing is Believing At the beginning of the 1700s, portraiture was considered a lower art form than that of history painting. Artists themselves often perceived it as such, with even Thomas Gainsborough describing the practice of portrait painting as ‘picking pockets in the portrait way’. With both George I and II taking little interest in painting, the genre was not given the opportunity to flourish.

In spite of this, portrait commissions were enormously popular, although their artistic emphasis tended to be on quantity rather than quality.

By the middle of the century however, there was a shift in the estimation and ambition of portraiture. Reynolds in particular called for a new definition of portrait painting and went on to diversify compositions and introduce a new emphasis on the character of a sitter. Similarly, artists such as Henry Raeburn and Allan Ramsay developed a new naturalism which emphasised the role of intuition in painting and brought about radical changes in representation by the end of the century. Landscape would also align itself to this new naturalism, whether in the background of portraits or the setting for ‘conversation pieces’. The ‘Capability’ Brown landscape at Compton Verney would have been contemporary to a number of the portraits on display here and illustrates how the fashion for the outdoors and the aesthetic movement of the ‘Picturesque’ was reflected in the portraits being commissioned at the time.

Corresponding to this golden age of portrait painting was ‘the era of exhibitions’. Beginning in 1747 with the permanent display of artist donated work at Thomas Coram’s charitable foundation, the Foundling Hospital, exhibitions were then held at Spring Gardens by the group called the Society of Artists and then at the Royal Academy which opened in 1769.

These exhibitions led artists and patrons to become ever more ambitious, as work produced was now seen in direct competition.

This display of work on loan from the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath alongside paintings from Compton Verney’s own collection, celebrates the development of portrait painting in the second half of the 1700s. Seeing is Believing can be seen to apply both to the artist’s new approach to representation, and to the patron whose portrait was a direct expression of their social standing and wealth.

The Holburne Museum will reopen in two years time after extensive building development to house their collection and provide new temporary exhibition spaces.

The Grand Tour The gentleman’s tour to Europe, the Grand Tour, was established in the 1600s. Artists were particularly encouraged to visit Italy where they would tour and study the heritage and ancient cultural sites as well as the art of the Renaissance. The tour was also particularly useful for emerging artists, keen to meet potential patrons for commissions. In the mid 1700s there was a great influx of British artists to Italy, many of whom are seen here: Thomas Barker, Angelica Kauffman, Henry Raeburn, Allan Ramsay, Joshua Reynolds, George Stubbs, and the architect Robert Adam (who would go on to redesign Compton Verney’s mansion and interiors in the 1760s).

George Stubbs (1724–1806) Reverend Robert Carter Thelwall and Family Oil on panel 1776 Holburne Museum of Art Stubbs was largely self–taught as an artist, although aged fourteen he worked briefly under Hamlet Winstanley copying old masters at Knowlsey Hall. His life and work are not well documented but it is known that he visited Rome briefly in 1754, then returned to the North of England to paint portraits while studying and producing anatomical drawings of horses (forty–two drawings of which survive at the Royal Academy).

He did not fully emerge as an artist until the age of thirty–five when he rose to fame by painting the racehorses of noblemen.

He also worked on incidental portraits of grooms and jockeys and occasional ‘conversation pieces’ such as this group with the Reverend Thelwall and his family. An example of portraiture’s new integration with nature, the painting asserts the Reverend Thelwall as the master of his land at the same time as showing his allegiance to the church, just visible in the distance.

Thomas Barker (1767–1847) Self–portrait Oil on canvas About 1794 Holburne Museum of Art Often referred to as ‘Barker of Bath’, Thomas Barker settled in Bath after returning from the Grand Tour in Italy and a brief stay in London. This self–portrait of the artist is a clear piece of self– promotion. Seen at his easel, paintbrushes and palette in hand, he not only presents himself as an accomplished artist but also depicts an Italianate landscape clearly communicating his recent travels on the Grand Tour.

Barker’s home and gallery on the corner of Sion Hill stood within a few yards of Sir William Holburne’s house at 10, Cavendish Crescent. In order to provide the essential showroom where he could exhibit his work, a thirty–foot long gallery was included in the plans of the new house built for Barker and his wife by the architect J.M.Gandy.

Apart from some fine portraits in the earlier part of his career, as ‘Barker of Bath’ he was famed chiefly for his rustic subjects and picturesque landscapes owing much to the influence of Gainsborough and George Morland. In Compton Verney’s Marx–Lambert Collection, a Victorian cast iron doorstop is based on one of his most popular paintings, The Woodman and his Dog.

Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807) Henrietta Laura Pulteney Oil on canvas About 1777 Holburne Museum of Art Although Angelica Kauffman was born in Switzerland and spent only 15 years in England (1766–1781) she made a significant impact on the London art scene. Admired and encouraged

by Joshua Reynolds, her reputation for portraiture and history painting led to her becoming a Founder Member of the Royal Academy in 1768 and the first of only two women elected until 1922. Excluded from the life class, Kauffmann developed her own brand of history painting which focused on female subjects from classical history and mythology. While on the Grand Tour the majority of her portraits were of men, but when she arrived in England she soon became caught up in a network of female patronage.

This portrait of Henrietta Laura Pulteney was painted in about 1777, when the sitter would have been nine years old. Laura Pulteney would later gain the reputation as being the richest heiress in England. Her family’s wealth included estates in London, Bath, Shropshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Wales. A number of streets are named after the family in Bath including the famous Pulteney Bridge modelled on the Rialto in Venice. Despite her wealth, Laura is depicted with none of the obvious indications of status that one would expect to see in earlier portraits. She appears dancing through a wood plucking

flowers like an Arcadian nymph, her figure and raised arm mirroring the form of the trees in the background. The depiction of women in natural outdoor settings was particularly favoured at the time, symbolising as it did, an important natural virtue in the character of the sitter.

Angelica Kauffman was probably chosen to paint Laura’s portrait through the family’s connections with her colleague, the architect Robert Adam, for whom she decorated interiors.

Allan Ramsay (1713–1784) John and Rosamund Sargent Oil on canvas 1749 Holburne Museum of Art Aside from Reynolds and Gainsborough, Allan Ramsay also achieved great acclaim in the 1700s, becoming Principal Court Painter in 1761 until his death in 1784. Ramsay was one of the painters along with Henry Raeburn who was part of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Of great importance to Ramsay was the relationship between seeing and knowing, in which painting followed philosophy.

Particularly influential for Ramsay was the philosopher David Hume, who himself held an empirical view of the world. Hume identified the imagination as the key faculty for human beings to perceive and understand the world, and held the view that

knowledge was therefore derived from experience rather than theory or logic. Ramsay’s approach to portraiture was therefore an art based on observation.

In the late summer of 1736 Ramsay travelled to Italy, first visiting Rome then Naples where he spent time in the studio of Solimena (1657–1747). By 1738 Ramsay had established himself in London and quickly became successful. Even early on, he would bring a new fidelity to the phenomena of nature of a kind not seen before in British painting. His figures such as the two portraits of John and Rosamund Sargent, appear in real illuminated spaces and their character is directly portrayed. Ramsay’s portrayal of women was particularly celebrated, one contemporary stating that he was ‘formed to paint them’.

Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) Helen Boyle, Mrs Thomas Mure Oil on canvas About 1790 Holburne Museum of Art Raeburn was helped and encouraged by Joshua Reynolds, and the influence of Reynolds’ late work can be seen in the younger artist. He also went to Italy, and overlapped with fellow Scot, Allan Ramsay, in 1784, the last year of the older artist’s life. When in Italy he was particularly influenced by two portraits which were then on display – Raphael’s Julius II and Velasquez’s Pope Innocent X. The memory of these would stay with him, and the poses of both he would reference in later work.

Around 1790 he developed a distinctive use of colour – picking up the tints in the face and figure in the background as strong stated, separate passages of colour. Light would become very important in Raeburn’s work – as it was for Ramsay before him. Although very different superficially to Ramsay, Raeburn’s development as a painter in the early 1790s is founded on both an increasing appreciation of Ramsay’s naturalism as much as of Reynold’s informal portraiture.

Raeburn can also be seen to take his place as part of the Scottish Enlightenment, with a series of portraits of Enlightenment thinkers including his 1796 painting of Thomas Reid. Raeburn articulated Reid’s ideas on perception visually, by his approach to painting. He began to be freed from any burden of describing the known rather than the perceived. He painted form, light and structure without considering his knowledge of how things looked. Seeing became believing.

Portrait of Helen Boyle is one of a number of successful portraits at this time which place sitters in landscapes with daring use of both colour and painterly technique.

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) Mrs Baldwin in Eastern Dress Oil on canvas 1782 Successful from the start of his career as a portraitist, first in Plymouth where he was brought up, then London; Reynolds had an inexhaustible variety of ideas not only for poses but also classical allusions. He also had a key understanding of the society in which his sitters moved. He became Principal Painter to the King after the death of Allan Ramsay, a position which he held from 1784–92. He was also a Founder Member of the Royal Academy and its first President where he delivered a series of fifteen ‘Discourses’ on the arts to students and members.

Mrs Jane Baldwin (1763–1839) was the daughter of William Maltass, a merchant who traded with the East through the Levant company. She was born in Smyrna, Turkey in June 1763 and married George Baldwin who became British Consul–General in Egypt. She was a celebrated beauty and Reynolds painted her in a Persian–derived costume, consistent with the fashion for depicting sitters in fancy dress. Mrs Baldwin wore this costume on several occasions, including a ball in London given by the King, and was known as the ‘pretty Greek’.

William Beechey (1753–1839) Mirza Abu’l Hassan Khan Oil on canvas 1809–1810 Mirza Abu’l Hassan Khan was sent to the court of King George III in 1809 by the Shah of Persia, to help negotiate a treaty of alliance between Great Britain and Persia (Iran). He became a figure of fascination, and many parties were held in his honour.

On arrival back in Persia in 1811, he was given the honorary title of Khan, in recognition of the role he had played in the treaty negotiations.

In his diplomatic diary Abu’l Hassan describes visiting Beechey’s house in Harley Street and his joy at meeting his children. By this time Beechey was known as one of the foremost portrait painters of his day and painted two recorded portraits of this sitter.

Formerly a pupil of Zoffany and influenced by Reynolds, he first worked in Norwich before settling in London in 1787. Although his career was somewhat overshadowed by the success of the younger Thomas Lawrence, in 1793 he was appointed as portrait painter to Queen Charlotte.

Arthur Devis (1762–1822) Alicia and Jane Clarke Oil on canvas About 1758 Holburne Museum of Art Born in Preston, Lancashire, Devis moved to London in the early 1740s and set up a studio in Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where his business flourished. This portrait of the two Clarke sisters, is an example of the type of ‘conversation piece’ for which Devis was renowned. These small–scale portrait groups were often situated in domestic interiors or, as here, outdoors in either gardens or parkland. His portraits appealed greatly to the middle class gentry of the time and it is thought their combination of landscape and portraiture influenced the young Gainsborough.

Giovanni Antonio Canal known as Canaletto The Interior of the Rotunda, Ranelagh Oil on canvas 1754

Giovanni Antonio Canal known as Canaletto The Grand Walk, Vauxhall Gardens Oil on canvas 1751 In 1746, Venetian painter, etcher and draughtsman Canaletto moved to Britain. He hoped to secure patronage from many of those who had been on the Grand Tour, and for whom he had worked in Italy. He remained in England until 1755 producing views of London and of castles and houses for his patrons who included the Dukes of Northumberland, Richmond and Beaufort.

In Canaletto’s day, Vauxhall Gardens was one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London between 1650 and 1850. Located in Kennington on the south bank of the River Thames and known as New Spring Gardens until 1785, Vauxhall Gardens became a venue for musical performances including a rehearsal of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749 which attracted an audience of 12,000 people. The gardens also offered visitors the chance to promenade at night along paths lit by hundreds of lamps. The grounds developed over time to include a Chinese pavilion, gothic orchestra, ruins, arches and statues.

Display Case Miniatures Charles Jagger (1770–1827) Thomas William Holburne Watercolour on ivory 1827 Holburne Museum of Art One of Bath miniaturist Charles Jagger’s most ambitious works, this portrait miniature of the Sir Thomas William Holburne, shows the museum’s founder in very much his prime. The miniature demonstrates Jagger’s characteristic traits of using both hatching and stippling in the background. Holburne himself noted on the back of the miniature that the commission commanded a fee of 30 guineas. As a provincial miniaturist this fee was expensive, and shows how sought after his miniatures were at the time.

The collection of Sir William Holburne (1793–1874) forms the nucleus of the Holburne Museum of Art. Sir William was a sailor in the Royal Navy who retired to Bath at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He assembled a remarkable collection of over 4,000 works of fine and decorative art and an extensive library in his Bath town house in Cavendish Crescent. Widely known for his silver and Old Master paintings, Sir William also collected Italian bronzes and maiolica, porcelain, furniture, gems and portrait miniatures.

In 1882 the collection was bequeathed to the people of Bath by Sir William’s sister, Mary Anne Barbara Holburne (1802–1882). Sir William’s collection survives in the Museum virtually intact and it is a unique example of a nineteenth century townhouse collection.

Nathaniel Hone (1718–1784) Richard Beau Nash Enamel on copper 1750 Holburne Museum of Art Known as ‘The King of Bath’ for setting up the Assembly Rooms, Nash imposed a high standard of dress and behaviour on their setting. After 1745 his popularity waned and from 1758 he became a pensioner of the city.

Nathaniel Hone was born in Dublin and spent most of his working life in London. He painted miniatures in watercolour and enamel, as well as larger works in crayon and oils. Though a Founder Member of the Royal Academy, he subsequently quarrelled with Reynolds, its president.

This is one of Hone’s finest enamels, technically very accomplished and with a great sense of character. The inscription may be read as somewhat out of date for 1750, for Nash’s reign in Bath was over by the time this work was painted.

Under your guidance Bath flourishes in wealth and charms Aged 76. 1750

Richard Cosway (c1742–1821) Elizabeth Linley, unknown lady Watercolour on ivory About 1790 Holburne Museum of Art

Richard Cosway (c1742–1821) George, Prince of Wales Watercolour on ivory 1786–90 Holburne Museum of Art Richard Cosway was the leading portrait miniaturist of the Regency era. His ability to enhance the looks of his sitters assured he was in considerable demand in fashionable circles. He painted his first portrait of George IV in 1780 and was appointed Painter to the Prince of Wales five years later. Cosway enjoyed continuous patronage from the Prince and as these miniatures were often exhibited and engraved, Cosway had considerable influence over the official image of the Prince.

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