The Painter's Son

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The Painter's Son
The Painter's Son.png
Artist Martin Archer Shee
Yearc. 1820
Type Oil on canvas, portrait painting
Dimensions76.2 cm× 63.5 cm(30.0 in× 25.0 in)
Location Royal Academy of Arts, London

The Painter's Son or The Artist's Son is an oil on canvas portrait painting by the Irish artist Martin Archer Shee, from c. 1820. [1]

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History and description

It depicts the artist's third and youngest son William, then aged around ten, against a romantic background and wearing a burgundy suit with a ruffled collar.

Archer Shee was a friend of the leading portraitist of the Regency era Thomas Lawrence. The work suggests the influence of Lawrence on Archer Shee's style. Equally it may have provided some inspiration for one of Lawrence's best known-works, The Red Boy , produced five years later and displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1825. Archer Shee went on to succeed Lawrence as President of the Royal Academy in 1830. The original is now on the collection of the Royal Academy, having been acquired in 1894. [2] A version also exists in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. [3]

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