Portrait of Benjamin West | |
---|---|
Artist | Thomas Lawrence |
Year | 1810 |
Type | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 153.7 cm× 120.7 cm(60.51 in× 47.51 in) |
Location | Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut |
Portrait of Benjamin West is an 1810 portrait painting by the British artist Thomas Lawrence depicting the Anglo-American painter Benjamin West. [1] Ten years later Lawrence succeeded West, on his death, as the President of the Royal Academy. [2]
West had made his name on both sides of the Atlantic with his 1770 epic painting The Death of General Wolfe . In 1792 he was elected as President of the Royal Academy in succession to the first Joshua Reynolds. A former child prodigy, Lawrence had become one of Britain's most fashionable portraitists when he painted West, on the cusp of the Regency era. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition at Somerset House in 1811. It has been described as a "sober, respectful yet searching portrait" of the elder artist. [3]
Today it is in the collection of the Yale Center of British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. [4] Samuel Morse made a copy of the work while visiting Lawrence's studio in London, which is now in the National Academy of Design. [5]
Giacomo Francesco Zuccarelli was an Italian artist of the late Baroque or Rococo period. He is considered to be the most important landscape painter to have emerged from his adopted city of Venice during the mid-eighteenth century, and his Arcadian views became popular throughout Europe and especially in England where he resided for two extended periods. His patronage extended to the nobility, and he often collaborated with other artists such as Antonio Visentini and Bernardo Bellotto. In 1768, Zuccarelli became a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts, and upon his final return to Italy, he was elected president of the Venetian Academy. In addition to his rural landscapes which frequently incorporated religious and classical themes, Zuccarelli created devotional pieces and on occasion did portraiture. Besides paintings, his varied output included etchings, drawings, and designs for tapestries as well as a set of Old Testament playing cards.
Sir Thomas Lawrence was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at the Bear Hotel in the Market Square. At age ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits. At 18, he went to London and soon established his reputation as a portrait painter in oils, receiving his first royal commission, a portrait of Queen Charlotte, in 1789. He stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in 1830.
John Trumbull was an American painter and military officer best known for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Revolution". Trumbull's Declaration of Independence (1817), one of his four paintings that hang in the United States Capitol rotunda, is used on the reverse of the current United States two-dollar bill.
Benjamin West was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as The Death of Nelson, The Death of General Wolfe, the Treaty of Paris, and Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky.
The Yale Center for British Art at Yale University in central New Haven, Connecticut, houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. The collection of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts reflects the development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward.
The American Academy of the Fine Arts was an art institution founded in 1802 in New York City, to encourage appreciation and teaching of the classical style. It exhibited copies of classical works and encouraged artists to emulate the classical in their work. Richard Varick, the mayor of New York, and Gulian Verplanck, a New York politician, were some of the academy's original organizers. Younger artists grew increasingly restive under its constraint, and in 1825 left to found the National Academy of Design.
Richard Evans (1784–1871), was an English portrait-painter and copyist, a pupil and later assistant of Sir Thomas Lawrence.
Portrait of William Linley is a 1788 portrait painting by the British artist Thomas Lawrence depicting William Linley.
Portrait of Lord Castlereagh is an 1809 portrait by the English artist Thomas Lawrence of the Irish politician Lord Castlereagh, then serving as the British Secretary of War. Lawrence had developed a reputation as a leading artist of society portraits, and was on friendly terms with the politician.
Caroline, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte is an 1801 portrait by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence depicting Caroline, Princess of Wales and her daughter Charlotte of Wales, then second in line to the throne after her father George, Prince of Wales who was the eldest son of George III. By this stage in their marriage Caroline and her husband were estranged and effectively separated.
George IV is an 1821 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence portraying George IV, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. George is depicted in the robes he wore for his Coronation in July 1821. Lawrence was Britain's pre-eminent portrait painter and had previously depicted George on a number of occasions during the Regency era before he came to the throne in succession to his father George III in 1820. Lawrence had recently been elected to succeed Benjamin West as President of the Royal Academy
Portrait of Queen Charlotte is a 1789 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom. Charlotte was the wife of the reigning monarch George III and mother of the future sovereigns George IV and William IV.
Portrait of Charles X is an 1825 portrait painting by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence depicting the reigning French monarch Charles X. Following the French Revolution that saw his eldest brother overthrown and executed, Charles has spent many years in exile including a period in Britain. His brother Louis XVIII was restored to the throne with British assistance in 1814 and then again in 1815 following the Battle of Waterloo. Charles, as his heir, led the conservative Ultra-royalist faction in French politics. When his brother died in 1824 he succeeded to the throne. The last member of the House of Bourbon to reign, he had an elaborate coronation in Reims in May 1825. The same year Charles was painted in his coronation robes by the French artist Robert Lefèvre.
The Portrait of Marshal Blücher is an 1814 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence of the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.
The Portrait of Francis I of Austria is a painting by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence depicting the Austrian Emperor Francis I.
George III is am 1809 portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence depicting the British monarch George III. It is an oil painting on canvas depicting the King in his robes for the State Opening of Parliament. It was commissioned by George as a gift for the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Henry Addington. George had reigned since 1760, but he was troubled by occasional bouts of mental instability. In 1810, shortly after celebrating the Golden Jubilee on the throne, George was overcome by a more lasting loss of control and his eldest son George was declared Prince Regent. The image by Lawrence continued to be used to represent the King throughout the remainder of his reign.
Sir Walter Scott is a portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence of the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott. Begun in 1820, it was completed in 1826 and exhibited at the 1827 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Lawrence was Britain's foremost society portraitist of the Regency era and was commissioned by George IV, a regular patron of the artist for whom he supplied various paintings for the Waterloo Chamber, to depict Scott for a fee of three hundred guineas.
The Marquess of Wellesley is a portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence of the Irish statesman Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley. Wellesley was a senior politician in Britain where he served as Foreign Secretary from 1809 to 1812 and was regarded as a potential future Prime Minister. Lawrence was the leading portraitist of the Regency era, depicting prominent figures from Britain and it's European Allies during the Napoleonic Wars. It is also known as the Portrait of Lord Wellesley.
Portrait of the Duchess of Berry is an 1825 portrait painting by the English artist Sir Thomas Lawrence. It depicts the Italian-born French royal Marie-Caroline, Duchess of Berry, the widowed daughter-in-law of the reigning French monarch Charles X. A few months after the assassination of her husband in 1820, she gave birth to a child Henri who seemed to secure the succession for the House of Bourbon.
Portrait of Lord Melbourne is a portrait painting by the English artist Thomas Lawrence portraying the British Whig politician and future Prime Minister Lord Melbourne. It is also known as the Portrait of William Lamb as he had not yet inherited the title from his father when it was painted. It is today in the National Portrait Gallery in London.