Items Similar to Portrait of a Lady in a White Dress - 18th Century Watercolour
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2
John DownmanPortrait of a Lady in a White Dress - 18th Century Watercolour
About the Item
John Downman
1750-1824
Portrait of a Lady in a White Dress
Pencil, stump and watercolour, heightened with white chalk, signed and dated 1784
Image size: 8⅛ x 6½ inches
John Downman was born in Ruabon, North Wales, in 1750. His father, Francis Downman, was an attorney and his mother, Charlotte Goodsend, was the daughter of the private secretary to George I.
After studying in Liverpool for a short period, Downman moved to London in 1769, where he enrolled to study as one of the first thirty-six pupils at the Royal Academy under the tuition of the prominent figure Benjamin West, the president of the institution at that time.
He exhibited his work at the Academy for the first time in 1770 before setting off in 1773 for a two-year tour of Italy in the company of the famous portraitist Joseph Wright of Derby.
The artist returned to England in 1775 and spent some time working as a portraitist in Cambridge and Exeter before moving back to London in 1779. Downman and his contemporaries Hugh Douglas Hamilton and Henry Edridge had much commercial success producing small intimate likenesses, which had an elegant lightness that perfectly captured a growing taste for sentiment in portraiture.
By around 1780, Downman had devised a method of working in chalks and watercolours, which allowed him to capture a likeness within a short sitting, from which he could easily reproduce a number of copies. The small intimate scale of the works made them an appropriate form of keepsakes for family and loved ones and Downman’s works were declared to be ‘universally admired and sought after by the first people of rank and taste’ (Morning Post, 4th of May 1786). He soon gained the patronage of some of the most esteemed figures of the day, including the Duchess of Devonshire and the Royal Family.
This attractive half-length portrait of a lady is typical of the artist’s work. The sitter is seated almost in profile in front of a blue curtain, dressed in a ruffle-fronted white dress and headdress. Downman believed that contemporary fashion should be recorded and preserved in portraiture. Unlike many earlier portraitists, he did not depict his sitters in standard or studio costumes, instead the sitters wore their own clothes and thus the portrait served as a form of snapshot of a particular fashion and period within the sitter’s life (see Lloyd, S. and Sloan, K. (ed.), The Intimate Portrait: Drawings Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence, London, (2008), p.229).
Downman was elected an associate Royal Academician in 1795 and continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1819. In his later life he moved to Wrexham in Devon where he died in 1824. A large number of his works are kept in the British Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where an exhibition of his work was held in 1996.
Literature:
- Lloyd, S. and Sloan, K. (ed.), The Intimate Portrait: Drawings Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence, London, (2008).
- Creator:John Downman (1750 - 1824, British)
- Dimensions:Height: 8 in (20.32 cm)Width: 6.5 in (16.51 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:1 of 1Price: $5,349
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU5247707062
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Seller
These experienced sellers undergo a comprehensive evaluation by our team of in-house experts.
Established in 2007
1stDibs seller since 2014
63 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 2 hours
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: London, United Kingdom
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- Self PortraitLocated in London, GBTrelawney Dayrell Reed Born 1886 Self Portrait Watercolour with bodycolour on card, signed and dated '1912' bottom right Image size: 19 x 25 inches (48.5 x 63.5 cm) Contemporary frame This striking self-portrait by Trelawney Dayrell Reed is undeniably unique. Looking out directly at the viewer, Reed has depicted himself wearing a large dramatic Venetian cape dwarfing his body and taking over the lower half of the picture. The figure is framed with an unusual background of graphic geometric shapes and drapes of fabric that seem to hang off nothing in mid-air. Reed's face and hair is created with, occasionally angular, sweeps of dynamic colour. His use of green shadow employs colour theory to work with the range of flesh tones to create a balanced and coherent palette. Trelawney Dayrell Reed was a historian whose published titles include The Battle for Britain in the Fifth Century. An essay in Dark Age history (1944) and The Rise of Wessex. A further essay in Dark Age history (1947), and worked as a curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, sister to the first Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford. Reed was also the author of a book about the alehouse game 'Shove Ha'penny', an eccentric volume threaded with peppery asides about urban values ('London is not the centre of Dorset') and the diverse forces considered to be undermining rural life ('cheap press headline, Sunday newspapers and semitic Cinema captions hot from Hollywood'). Artist John Craxton at the age of 17 was picking up antiques...Category
1910s Aesthetic Movement Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsGouache
- Officer in Trench Cap, 20th Century Signed WatercolourBy V. WardLocated in London, GBV Ward Unknown Officer in Trench Cap Watercolour and pencil Signed and dated 1918, lower right Image size: 12 x 10 inchesCategory
20th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPencil, Watercolor
- Unknown Officer in Trench CapBy V. WardLocated in London, GBV Ward Unknown Officer in Trench Cap Watercolour and pencil Signed and dated 1918, lower right Image size: 12 x 10 inchesCategory
20th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPencil, Watercolor
- Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban, Early 19th Century Orientalist WatercolourBy William Henry HuntLocated in London, GBWatercolour on paper Image size: 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches (11.5 x 9 cm) Mounted and framed This is an arresting image featuring a head and shoulders portrait of a bearded man wearing a ...Category
Early 19th Century Victorian Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Portrait of a Girl in Profile, Watercolour Painting, 1884Located in London, GBWatercolour on paper, signed and dated 1884 top left Image size: 11 x 8 3/4 inches (28 x 22.25 cm) Original gilt frame This is a late 19th century portrait of a girl in profile, wea...Category
1880s Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Watercolor
- Sketch from Life, 19th Century English Watercolour, Girl in ProfileLocated in London, GBWatercolour on paper, signed and dated '1870' lower left Image size: 5 x 6 1/2 inches (13 x 16.5 cm)Category
1870s Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Watercolor
You May Also Like
- Portrait Old Master, Joseph Vivien, Mme Silvestre, French Rococo, PastelBy Joseph VivienLocated in Greven, DEThe portrait shows Mme Silvestre. Born in Paris, Silvestre was the daughter of Charles-Antoine Hérault and his wife Marie-Geneviève, who were her first teachers. In 1706 she married the painter Louis de Silvestre, moving with him in 1716 to Dresden. The couple's daughter Marie-Maximilienne became a pastellist. Silvestre died in Dresden, the year before her husband retired and returned to Paris. Her surviving pastels show the influence of Rosalba Carriera...Category
18th Century Rococo Portrait Paintings
MaterialsGouache, Oil Pastel
- Early 20th C Portrait Attractive Female Watercolour Listed Artist K B CurtisLocated in York, GBA lady at her dressing table Signed and indistinctly dated 190*, watercolour, Miss K* B* Curtis (ex.1917 -1919) framed and glazed(modern frame) ready to hang in very good condition size overall 30 x 24 inches approx. size of painting 20 x 14 inches approx. Miss K* B* Curtis exhibited 1917-1919 portrait...Category
Early 20th Century English School Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsWatercolor
- Cabaret Dancers girls Austrian watercolor painting in fraimed 1930sBy Richard GeigerLocated in Stockholm, SESigned: by Richard Geiger (1870 – 1945), Austrian - Hungarian painter. Also pencils inscriptions on reverse with date 33 (1933). By the 1920s, he worked illustrating books, bookplates and posters. His paintings included portraits, nudes, genre paintings, and mythological scenes, but he was known for his illustrations, especially his carnival motifs. Spectacular masterwork. Size app.: 18 x 23.3 cm (roughly 7.1 x 9,2 in), framed 31.7 x 36.4 cm (roughly 12.5 x 14.3 in). Very Good condition, minimal age wear. In person actual painting may appear darker or brighter than in our pictures, strictly depending on sufficient light in your environment. Please study good resolution images for overall cosmetic condition. Glass will be removed prior to shipment for safe transit. Weight of app. 0,5 kg (without glass!) is going to measure some 2 kg volume weight packed for shipment. R. Geiger was born in Vienna. He first attended a drawing school and then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he studied under Christian Griepenkerl and August Eisenmenger. He studied sculpture with Fritz Klimsch at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. There he took part in the exhibitions of the Academy with his portrait busts and sculptures. In Paris he studied at the Julian Academy and worked in the studio of François Flameng...Category
1930s Realist Portrait Paintings
MaterialsWood, Paper, Watercolor
- Orange VestsBy Brian StonehouseLocated in London, GBGouache and charcoal on paper, 53cm x 37cm (74cm x 55cm framed). Provenance: the Artist’s estate (stamped verso). Stonehouse had an extraordinary life. As a young art student studying fashion illustration, he joined the Royal Artillery at the beginning of WWII but soon became a part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). He was sent to France as a radio operator but three and a half months later was caught by the Gestapo, tortured, given a death sentence and then selected for slave labour. He spent the subsequent war years in three French prisons and five concentration and labour camps, including Dachau. He still managed to continue to draw in some of the camps. Following the war, Stonehouse went to the US and continued his career as a fashion artist painting for magazines...Category
1970s Post-War Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Gouache, Charcoal
- Untitled image of woman smoking by modernist painter Hugó ScheiberBy Hugó ScheiberLocated in Hudson, NYThis artwork is framed with non-reflective, UV protection Museum glass. The frame size is 15.5" x 12.75" About this artist: Hugó Scheiber was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1873. His ...Category
Early 20th Century Modern Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsTempera, Gouache, Paper
- Head with Green DressBy Alfred Henry MaurerLocated in Provincetown, MAAlfred H. Maurer emerged as an influential crucial figure in the art scene of late 19th-century America, gaining widespread recognition for his innovative Fauvist approach characterized by vibrant colors and expressive brushwork. Departing from his renowned portraits and genre paintings, he delved into Fauvist landscapes, still lifes, and depictions of anonymous individuals. His distinctive technique relied on saturated colors rather than precise lines or forms, allowing him to convey a profound psychological intensity through dynamic, flowing strokes. As he matured as an artist, Maurer pioneered American...Category
1920s Expressionist Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsGouache
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
Used White Dress
Portrait Of A Lady
Intimate Portrait
8 And A Half
Study Of A Lady
Antique White Dress
Antique White Dresses
Drawings Italian 18th Century
18th Century Dress
A Duchess
Seat And A Half
Be A Lady
Dress Forms Antique
Antique Dress Form
Dress Form Antique
Antique Dress Forms
Portrait White Dress
Antique Blue Dress