19th Century Gentleman’s Portrait Painting by English School

About the Item

19th century, English School Gentleman’s portrait Oil on canvas, cm 76,5 x 64 The painting in question portrays a gentleman of the second half of the nineteenth century, as we can guess from the shape of the clothes he wears (a black jacket and waistcoat, a white shirt with a high collar wrapped in a black scarf and a bow tie of the same color)is most likely to be traced back to the circles of the new English bourgeoisie, London in particular. Represented by three quarters with the gaze fixed on the observer, in fact, for stylistic and compositional affinities can be compared with the works of some of the major London portraitists of the nineteenth century. The type of portrait, in fact, from the second half of the seventeenth century was the genre that best suited the aspirations of the middle class, as it is advantageous from the economic point of view, both for the insertion of the homes of the new bourgeoisie. Among the most renowned and sought-after portraitists of London are Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), who argued that although the human figure, an animal or even an object were not noble subjects, they could have acquired dignity, communicate a feeling and produce emotions in the same way as a historical or mythological subject. His works are now in several private collections, as well as the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Wallace collection and other British galleries. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was also a renowned portrait painter and landscape painter in England. His portraits show an extraordinary ease of composition and agility of touch, his colors, in contrast to the opaque tones used by Reynolds, with which the most prestigious clients of the city competed, are clear and sparkling, the very thin dough and surprising depth, so that his brushstrokes, short and diagonally, were a "means of infinite artistic possibility" (A. Popham, 1923). We cannot fail to highlight, moreover, an echo of the painting of Francesco Hayez (1791-1882), interpreter of his time, scrupulous researcher of truth and master in history painting and portraiture, in which he experimented with unusual and even daring solutions that gave rise to works such as the Portrait of Alessandro Manzoni (1841), now in Brera, the Self-Portrait (1848), also in the Pinacoteca braidense, the Portrait of the singer Matilde Juva Branca (Milan, Gallery of modern art) and that of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, in the homonymous Milanese Museum.

Dimensions:

Height: 30.32 in (77 cm)Width: 25.2 in (64 cm)Depth: 1.58 in (4 cm)

Materials and Techniques:

Canvas,Hand-Painted,Oiled,Painted

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

19th Century

Date of Manufacture:

19th Century

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.