18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
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Period: 18th Century
Bust Of A Woman In Profile, Sanguine On Paper, Signed And Dated
Located in PARIS, FR
Nicolas-André COURTOIS
Paris 1734-1806
Bust of a woman in profile
1791
Sanguine
Signed and dated lower left on the original mount
43.5 x 37 cm framed
19 x 25 cm
Category
French School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
French school Drawing 18th Portrait Ténor SAINT AUBIN three chalks Paris Opéra
Located in PARIS, FR
French school of the 18th century
Three pencils (pencil, red chalk, white chalk) on paper
27 x 18 cm (45 x 34 cm with frame)
Inscription at bottom “Saint-Aubin de l’Académie de musique”
Dated "1785"
Augustin d'Herbez known as "Saint-Aubin" was a tenor and member of the Royal Academy of Music...
Category
Academic 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Carbon Pencil, Paper, Chalk
Portrait of woman
Located in PARIS, FR
French School of the 18th century
Woman portrait
Pastel on paper mounted on canvas
Pastel: 46.5 x 63 cm (18.3 x 24.8 inches)
Frame: 57 x 71 cm (22.4 x 28 inches)
Very good condition
...
Category
Academic 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
Study of a Child. Circle of François Boucher (French 1703 - 1770)
By François Boucher
Located in Sydney, NSW
Circle of François Boucher (French 1703 - 1770), Study of a Child.
This charming work is probably a study for a painting, it shows a child with a swathe of billowing fabric over her ...
Category
Rococo 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk, Laid Paper
French School, 18th Century, Portrait Of A Man Seen From Three Quarters, chalk
Located in PARIS, FR
French School - 18th century
Paris, Louis XV-Transition period
Portrait of a man seen from three quarters
Mid-18th century
Sanguine
40 x 29 cm
59 x 50 cm framed
Superb Transition pe...
Category
French School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk, Laid Paper
Mughal School, 18th Century Emperor Jahangir with Empress Nur Jahan
Located in Middletown, NY
Emperor Jahangir and Empress Nur Jahan exchanging lotus blossoms; a symbol of beauty, purity, honesty, rebirth, self-regeneration, and enlightenment....
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 18th century – Emperor Jahangir dancing with his harem attendees
Located in Middletown, NY
A joyful scene of lighthearted merriment in the palace of Jangahir Mahal Agra
Circa 1750. Gouache and ink with gold heightening on light weight cream laid paper, 8 1/4 x 6 inches (2...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Rajput School, 17th century Krishna with his beloved, Radha; from Mahabharata
Located in Middletown, NY
Vishnu in the form of Krishna being serenaded with his beloved Radha. An illuminated page from the epic of Mahabharata
circa 1690. Gouache and ink with gold heightening on cream lai...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 18th century – Emperor Jahangir in his harem in flagrante delicto
Located in Middletown, NY
An illuminated page from a book likely in reference to palace life during Emperor Jahangir's reign over the Mughal Empire.
Circa 1750. Gouache and ink with gold heightening on cre...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Ritratto a matita del pittore Francesco Albani, inizi del XIX secolo
Located in Florence, IT
Il disegno rappresenta, come riportato a penna in basso al centro del foglio, il ritratto del celebre pittore dell'Emilia Romagna Francesco Albani, uno dei massimi rappresentanti del...
Category
Other Art Style 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pencil
Disegno matite su carta ritratto di fanciullo con cappellino del XVIII secolo
Located in Florence, IT
Il disegno a matita grigia e rossa raffigura un intenso ritratto frontale di un fanciullo con cappello, con le braccia incrociate davanti.
Sul retro, in grafia corsiva, è probabilme...
Category
Other Art Style 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil
Mughal School, 18th century Emperor Jahangir taking tea in his harem
Located in Middletown, NY
An illuminated page from a book likely in reference to palace life during Emperor Jahangir's reign over the Mughal Empire.
circa 1750. Gouache and ink with heightening in gold on li...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 18th century Emperor Jangahir on a pleasure boat with his harem a
Located in Middletown, NY
Emperor Jahangir depicted with his harem attendees aboard a pleasure cruise, the water filled with lotus blossoms; symbols of paradise itself.
Circa 1750. Gouache and ink with gold ...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 17th century – Emperor Jahangir reclining in his harem
Located in Middletown, NY
An illuminated page from a book likely in reference to palace life during Emperor Jahangir's reign over the Mughal Empire.
Circa 1690. Gouache and ink with gold heightening on light...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 18th cent – Emperor Jahangir & Empress Nur Jahan on a Tiger Hunt
Located in Middletown, NY
A beautiful composition depicting Empress Nur Jahan on a tiger hunt, an act of feminism.
Circa 1750. Gouache and ink with heightening in gold on brown laid paper, 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (317 x 210 mm), with a floral-motif border painted in blue and oxblood, the full sheet. With extensive inscriptions in Persian written in black ink on the verso. In good condition with overall toning and minor creasing, all consistent with age. The color is rich and and fresh with bright yellow illumination. In the distance we see the Jahangir Mahal Agra, as well as a sage meditating in his hut. A beautiful composition.
Nur Jahan was fond of hunting and often went on hunting tours with her husband and was known for her boldness in hunting ferocious tigers. She is reported to have slain four tigers with six bullets during one hunt. According to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan this feat, inspired a poet to declaim a spontaneous couplet in her honor: "Though Nur Jahan be in form a woman, In the ranks of men she...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 18th century – Tiger Hunt
Located in Middletown, NY
An unusual horizontal composition with extensive marginalia.
Circa 1750. Gouache and ink with gold heightening on light weight cream laid paper, 5 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches (140 x 298 mm...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Mughal School, 18th century Emperor Jahangir with Empress Nur Jahan on a Tiger
Located in Middletown, NY
circa 1750. Gouache and ink with heightening in gold on brown laid paper, 12 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (317 x 210 mm), with a floral-motif border painted in blue and gold, the full sheet. With extensive inscriptions in Persian written in black ink on the verso. In good condition with extraordinary color. We see Empress Nur Jahan making an offering to a sage in his hut, as Emperor Jahangir looks on from a tree stand.
Nur Jahan was fond of hunting and often went on hunting tours with her husband and was known for her boldness in hunting ferocious tigers. She is reported to have slain four tigers with six bullets during one hunt. According to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan this feat, inspired a poet to declaim a spontaneous couplet in her honor: "Though Nur Jahan be in form a woman, In the ranks of men she...
Category
Rajput 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gold
Attrib. Lady Diana Beauclerk (1734-1808) - Watercolour, Shepherdess with Baby
Located in Corsham, GB
A heartwarming sepia study of a shepherdess comforting her young baby. Well-presented in a contemporary gilt-effect frame. Unsigned. On paper.
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Attrib. William Hamilton RA (1751-1801) Watercolour, The Little Fortune Teller
By William Hamilton
Located in Corsham, GB
A delightful watercolour study depicting a young woman wearing a dress and smock. She points to her left hands showing her palm to the viewer. The artist captures her with a delicate...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
English school, circa 1784 'Mr and Mrs Rogers', pastel on paper, a pair
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
A wonderful naive pair of 18th Century portraits of Mr and Mrs Rogers, (A pair).
The details are:
English school, circa 1784
Mr and Mrs Rogers
Pastel on paper
Inscribed with sitter...
Category
English School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pastel
Framed 18th Century Watercolour - The Blind Man
Located in Corsham, GB
A fine 18th century portrait in watercolours, depicting a blind man seated in an expansive country landscape. The artist delicate brushwork and monochrome pa...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Portrait of a Lady, Drawing Signed and Dated by Augustin de Saint-Aubin
Located in PARIS, FR
This drawing full of freshness presents us with the profile of an elegant lady, drawn by Augustin de Saint-Aubin on a beautiful summer day in 1776, during the early months of Louis X...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Pencil
The Introduction, French School, 18th century
Located in Middletown, NY
In this charming scene a maid appears bashful as she is introduced by her mother to the shepherd’s son.
Ink and wash on hand made, cool-toned cream laid paper, 6 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches...
Category
French School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Watercolor, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper
Antique French Miniature Portrait of Lady Biographical details with painting
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Miniature Portrait
French School, late 18th/ early 19th century
framed: 5.5 x 5.5 inches
board: 2 x 2 inches
provenance: private collection, France
condition: very good and sound c...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Frederick I of Prussia
By Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder
Located in PARIS, FR
Georg Philipp I RUGENDAS (1666-1742)
Frederick I of Prussia
Red chalk, ink and brown wash on paper
45x42 cm
This drawing has been long considered representative of Charles VI. In r...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Portrait of a Man Wearing a Turban, 18th Century Pastel Drawing
By Thomas Frye
Located in London, GB
Pastel on paper
Image size: 13 x 17 1/2 inches (33 x 44.5 cm)
Mounted and framed
This original pastel drawing by Thomas Frye is a half-length portrait of a man dressed in a turban. This drawing is the original sketch for one of the heads depicted in Frye's collection 'Twelve Mezzotint Prints' of 1760 and it can be assumed that this pastel work was created earlier of this same year.
Two versions of the print, created from this original work, are currently held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Frye's evocative figures, although presumably based on living models, exceed the conventions of portraiture, and also function as character studies. The man shown here - dressed in the fashionable 'Turkish' manner - turns with parted lips as if poised to speak, while raising the elegant fingers in one hand in a rhetorical gesture. His long eyelashes and smoothly rendered wrinkles and dimples are hallmarks of Frye's refined style.
The Artist
Thomas Frye (c. 1710 – 3 April 1762) was an Anglo-Irish artist, best known for his portraits in oil and pastel, including some miniatures and his early mezzotint engravings. He was also the patentee of the Bow porcelain factory, London, and claimed in his epitaph to be "the inventor and first manufacturer of porcelain in England," though his rivals at the Chelsea porcelain factory seem to have preceded him in bringing wares to market. The Bow porcelain works did not long survive Frye's death; their final auctions took place in May 1764.
Frye was born at Edenderry, County Offaly, Ireland, in 1710; in his youth he went to London to practice as an artist. His earliest works are a pair of pastel portraits of boys...
Category
English School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Oil Pastel
A pair of oval drawings for Ovid, Metamophoses
By Charles Joseph Natoire
Located in Fairlawn, OH
A pair of oval drawings for Ovid, Metamophoses
Left: The Triumph of Amphitrite (Book I)
Right: Diana and Actaeon (Book III)
From: Ovid, Metamophoses
These mythological studies are a...
Category
Baroque 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Pen
French School 18th Century, L'étonnement, form of expression, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
French School 18th Century,
L'étonnement, Astonishment as a form of expression,
Titled on the lower right "L'étonnement N°9"
Black chalk on paper
43 x 29 cm
In good condition, a sta...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
French School 18th Century, Le Mépris et la Haine, form of expression, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
French School 18th Century,
Le Mépris et la Haine, Contempt and Hate as a form of expression,
Titled on the lower right "Le mépris et la haine N°7"
Black c...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
French School 18th Century, Le Rire, Laughter as a form of expression, drawing
Located in Paris, FR
French School 18th Century,
Le Rire, Laughter as a form of expression,
Titled on the lower right "Le rire N°12"
Black chalk on paper
43 x 29 cm
In quite good condition, stains vsibl...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Italian School 18th century, An Ancient soldier in profile, red chalk on paper
Located in Paris, FR
Italian School 18th Century
An Ancient soldier in profile,
red chalk on paper
35 x 23.5 cm
in good condition, traces of folds in the lower right corner
Framed : 46.5 x 35.5 cm
This...
Category
Baroque 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
French Pastel Portrait of a Chevalier of the Order of St Louis.
By (Circle of) Jean Baptiste Greuze
Located in Cotignac, FR
A fine 18th century French pastel portrait on paper of an aristocrat wearing the order of St Louis, inferring that the sitter had been in the military serving the King. The pastel is unsigned but to the the back is a piece of the original backing paper with a notation to the Baronne de Minck. The paper has been backed with a type of vellum, It is presented in a plain gilt wood frame on a period stretcher under 18th century glass.
The artist has used the pastel to create a wonderful soft velvety texture so characteristic of this medium which became so popular for portraits in the 18th century.
A charming rendition of a typical 18th century nobleman...
Category
Romantic 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pastel
Portrait Miniature c1765 Letitia Preston Vallancey
Located in Holywell, GB
A fine sanguine chalk drawing on paper of Letitia aged about ten dating to around 1765. Unsigned, inscribed verso and presented in a 19th century mount and frame.
“When Letitia Pres...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Attributed J S Copley Two Nobles Portrait Paintings 18 century pastel parchment
Located in Florence, IT
On the cardboard applied on the frame there is an annotation, belonging to some of the old owners, reporting the names of the portrayed in Kurrent handwriting: "Urgroßvater Ludwig Fr(ei)h(e)r(r) von Keller" "Urgroßmutter Fr(ei)h(e)r(rin) von Keller geb(oren) von Niebecker". So we can deduce that the models were Ludwig Friedrich Heinrich Ferdinand Baron of Keller (1760-1835), a German politician who was the director of the district of Prussia, and his wife Auguste Johanne Henriette Baroness of Niebecker (1760-1832).
Their high class provenience is highlighted by the not contained expressive liveliness, by the proud pose imitating movement and by the elegance of the clothes which fabric seems palpable (especially sincere is the evanescent depiction of the pleated veil of the gorget and the adorned with arabesques decoration of the sleeves and the vest).
The two pieces can be attributed to John Singleton Copley...
Category
Other Art Style 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Parchment Paper, Cardboard
Portrait - Drawing - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Portrait is an Ink, pastel and Watercolor realized by an artist of 18th Century.
Good condition on a grey paper, included a brown cardboard passpartout.
No signature.
Category
Modern 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Pastel, Watercolor
Study of a Sleeping Girl in a Cap
By Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Located in Middletown, NY
Graphite on greenish gray wove paper. 15 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches (390 x 295 mm). Initialed "G. B." in pencil on the lower right recto. In generally good condition with some minor scattered surface soiling. Condition is consistent with age.
____
This drawing is closely related to two known mid 18th century oils...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper, Graphite
Woman in Fantasy Costume (pair)
By Jean Baptist Le Prince
Located in New York, NY
The pair consists of the present work and an engraving after it by the hand of Giles DeMarteau (Liège 1722 – 1776 Paris) titled Woman in Fantasy Costume, after Jean Baptiste Le Prince, and measuring, 10 ⅜ x 8 ⅝ inches (26.5 x 22 cm).
DeMarteau's engraving is inscribed at the bottom:
Le Prince inv. del. / Demarteau sc. / A Paris ches Demarteau Graveur du Roi, rue de la Pelterie à la Cloche...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Chalk, Engraving
Costume of an envoy of Venice, a drawing by Francesco Galimberti (1755 - 1803)
Located in PARIS, FR
We thank Mrs. Bożena Anna Kowalczyk who suggested the attribution to Francesco Galimberti based on a photograph of the artwork.
This engaging drawing, finely executed in black and red chalks, depicts a Venetian diplomat in his 'new clothes...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
Costume drawings for ‘Ambassadeur de Siam’ and ‘La Sultana Reine’
Located in Amsterdam, NL
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809)
‘Ambassadeur de Siam’ and ‘La Sultana Reine’
Both titled lower centre, the drawing of the ambassador inscribed with colours intended for the prints, e...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil, Paper
After John Downman - 1794 Watercolour, Sarah Siddons (née. Kemble)
By John Downman
Located in Corsham, GB
This accomplished watercolours is a fine copy of John Downman's portrait of Sarah Siddons. Painted in the early 19th century, watercolours was a contempo...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Mercurio / Mercury
Located in Middletown, NY
A lovely, early drawing of the Roman god Mercury.
Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper, with a partial crown and shield watermark, 7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches (184x 123 mm) (matrix). In go...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper, Laid Paper
Figure of Man - Original Pencil Drawing by Augustin de Saint-Aubin- 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Figure of Man is an Original Pencil Drawing realized by Augustin de Saint-Aubin (1736-1807).
Good condition included a green and white cardboard passpartout (65x48 cm).
No signatur...
Category
Modern 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Portrait of a Young Officer, Thomas Lawrence
By Sir Thomas Lawrence
Located in London, GB
Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA
1769-1830
Portrait of a Gentleman
Pastel on paper
Mounted and gilt frame
Provenance
Old label verso describes how this was drawn in 1783 at the age of 14!
This rare early portrait drawn in Bath shows the level of technical skill that Lawrence had reached at 14 years old. His use of colour and tone to depict flesh and all the subtle variations in the texture and pigmentation of his sitter’s face, powdered hair and clothes show how Lawrence conceived pastel as a form of painting and partly explains how he could have made the smooth transition to oil painting so soon afterwards.
When he arrived in Bath from Devizes in 1780, eleven-year-old Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) was promoted as a natural-born genius like his Renaissance predecessor Raphael. The local press announced the arrival of the boy wonder and his ‘Striking Sketches’, inviting the ‘Nobility and Gentry’ to sit for their portraits.
Thomas Lawrence was a prodigious portraitist from the age of just eight, when he began to draw his first portraits in pencil...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Pastel
Portrait of Raffaello / Italian School
Located in Middletown, NY
Graphite and ink on handmade, watermarked C & I Honig laid paper, 8 15/16 x 6 3/4 inches (226 x 170 mm). Signed illegibly in ink, lower margin. Scattered light creasing and surface...
Category
Italian School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper, Ink, Graphite
Seaman in petticoat breeches and slops, smoking a pipe, carrying a carpetbag.
Located in Middletown, NY
English School, 18th century
Pen and black ink with gray wash on cream laid paper, 9 1/4 x 5 inches (238 x132 mm). 1/4 inch repaired loss, top center, to the left of the figure’s h...
Category
Realist 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor, Ink, Laid Paper, Pen
The Parnassus after Raphael Vatican 18th Century Pen Ink Wash Drawing c. 1780
By (after) Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)
Located in Meinisberg, CH
The Parnassus after Raphael
• 18th century Pen and Ink Wash Drawing
• Later glazed wood frame, ca. 62 x 78.5 cm
• Mounted behind a modern arched matt...
Category
Italian School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Handmade Paper, Ink
18th Century Pastel - Rebecca
Located in Corsham, GB
This charming portrait captures Rebecca, daughter of John and Mary Davis of London at a desk writing with a quill. Her fine dress with lace embellishment...
Category
18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
School of Athens after Raphael Vatican 18th Century Pen Ink Wash Drawing c. 1780
By (after) Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)
Located in Meinisberg, CH
The School of Athens after Raphael
• 18th century Pen and Ink Wash Drawing
• Later glazed wood frame, ca. 62 x 78.5 cm
• Mounted behind a modern arch...
Category
Naturalistic 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Handmade Paper
Rococo Portait, French Rococo, Marie Baudouin, Daughter of Francois Boucher
By François Boucher
Located in Greven, DE
Portrait of the daughter of Francois Boucher, Marie-Emilie Baudouin, holding a basket of flowers. Pastel on Parchment. The work is related to an oval portrait painting...
Category
Rococo 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
18th Century Sanguine Drawing, La Naissance de Louis XIII, After Rubens.
Located in Cotignac, FR
18th Century French Sanguine drawing, possibly a preparatory sketch for the painting by Nattier after the painting by Rubens. Presented in shaped 'marie-louise' mount in plain gold wood frame with collection label.
The subject is the Queen Marie de' Medici seated on a grand throne, the baby is in the arms of Health while Justice looks over him. Fecundity brings a cornucopia of fruit with the heads of the other children the Queen will bear. The Sun rides his chariot across the sky to indicate that Louis XIII was born in the morning and the calm figure of France surveys the whole scene.
An engraving exists (see the Wellcome Collection) of this same image: 'The birth of King Louis XIII', after the engraving by B. Audran the younger after the painting by Jean-Marc Nattier after the oil painting of Peter Paul Rubens in the Louvre 'La Naissance du Dauphin (future Louis XIII) à Fontainebleau, le 27 septembre 1601'.
Jean-Marc Nattier (17 March 1685 – 7 November 1766) was a French painter. He was born in Paris, the second son of Marc Nattier (1642–1705), a portrait painter, and of Marie Courtois (1655–1703), a miniaturist. He is noted for his portraits of the ladies of King Louis XV's court in classical mythological attire.
He received his first instruction from his father, and from his uncle, the history painter Jean Jouvenet (1644–1717). He enrolled in the Royal Academy in 1703 and applied himself to copying pictures in the Luxembourg Palace, making a series of drawings of the Marie de Médici painting...
Category
Baroque 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Chalk, Paper, Clay
Portrait Old Master, Joseph Vivien, Mme Silvestre, French Rococo, Pastel
By Joseph Vivien
Located in Greven, DE
The 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
Rococo 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache, Oil Pastel
18th century portrait drawing of the Rev. William Atkinson
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Henry Scipio Reitlinger (1882-1950);
Private collection, UK to 2019
Framed dimensions: 14.50 x 15.38 inches
This drawing is one of only two known portrait drawings by Romney (as opposed to preliminary studies for portraits) and is dated by Alex Kidson as being executed no later than 1769. It is likely that the present drawing was originally part of a sketchbook, now largely dismembered (Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal), which Kidson notes, contained some of Romney’s most beautiful early drawings. This drawing, and a second sheet formerly with Andrew Wyld, have been identifying as depicting the Rev. William Atkinson...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Portraits of the Hon. Mary Shuttleworth and Anna Maria, 9th Baroness Forrester
Located in London, GB
THE HON. MARY SHUTTLEWORTH, NÉE COCKBURN (D. 1777)
and her sister
ANNA MARIA, 9TH BARONESS FORRESTER (D. 1808)
Pastel and gouache on paper laid on canvas, on their original backb...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache, Pastel
French Art, Rococo, Portrait Queen Marie Antoinette France, Oval, Circle Vivien
Located in Greven, DE
French School, Portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Pastel /oil Pastel on Paper, Rococo, 18th Century. The Pastel is made in the style...
Category
Rococo 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Pastel, Oil
18th century portrait of the Royal Academy model George White
By John Russell
Located in London, GB
Collections:
Russell sale, Christie’s, 14 February, 1807: ‘John Russell, Esq., R.A. deceased, crayon painter to His Majesty, the Prince of Wales, and Duke of York; and brought from his late Dwelling in Newman Street’, lot 92, ‘St Peter’, bt. Thompson (£1.13s);
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 25th September 1980, lot 113;
Private collection, UK, 2016.
Literature:
Martin Postle, 'Patriarchs, prophets and paviours: Reynolds's images of old age', The Burlington Magazine, vol. cxxx, no. 1027, October 1988, pp. 739-40, fig. 9;
Martin Postle, Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Subject Pictures, Cambridge, 1995, p.136, repr.;
Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, J.64.2928.
Signed and dated: J Russell/ fecit 1772 (lower right)
Framed dimensions: 25 x 31 inches
John Russell was admitted to the Royal Academy in March 1770, at the same time as Daniel Gardner. The nascent Academy Schools were still establishing their teaching structures, but central to the syllabus were the twin components of drawing after the antique and from life models. By 1772 Russell had already been awarded a silver medal and progressed to the life academy, where he produced this remarkable pastel study of George White. White was the most famous model employed by the Royal Academy and prominent artists in the second half of the eighteenth century. A paviour – or street mender –by profession White had been discovered by Joshua Reynolds, who in turn introduced him to the Academy. Russell’s striking head study demonstrates his abilities as a portraitist and pastellist, at the same time showing his interest in the Academy’s preoccupation with promoting history painting.
George White was one of the most celebrated models in eighteenth-century London. According to the painter Joseph Moser:
'Old George…owed the ease in which he passed his latter days, in a great measure to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who found him exerting himself in the laborious employment of thumping down stones in the street; and observing not only the grand and majestic traits of his countenance, but the dignity of his muscular figure, took him out of a situation to which his strength was by no means equal, clothed, fed, and had him, first as a model in his own painting room, then introduced him as a subject for the students of the Royal Academy.'
As Martin Postle has pointed out, whilst characterful studies of old men posed as biblical figures, prophets or saints by Continental old masters were readily available on the art market – Reynolds himself had copied a head of Joab by Federico Bencovich in the collection of his friend and patron, Lord Palmerston - finding a model in Britain from whom to execute a painting was more difficult.
White therefore offered a rare opportunity for artists to combine portraiture and history painting, by painting a model in the guise of an historical or literary character. In 1771 Reynolds showed at the Royal Academy a picture of White entitled Resignation. It was engraved in 1772 and accompanied by a stanza from Oliver Goldsmith’s Deserted Village, implying a literary context to what is essentially a portrait. In his annotated Royal Academy catalogue, Horace Walpole noted: ‘This was an old beggar, who had so fine a head that Sir Joshua chose him for the father in his picture from Dante, and painted him several times, as did others in imitation of Reynolds. There were even cameos and busts of him.’ White sat to, amongst others Johan Zoffany, John Sanders, Nathaniel Hone and the sculptor John Bacon...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
Eighteenth-century Irish portrait of the Rev. Henry Dabzac
By Hugh Douglas Hamilton
Located in London, GB
Pastel on paper, oval
9 x 7 ¼ inches; 230 x 185 mm
Inscribed on the verso:
‘The Revd Henry Dabzac D.D./ late Senior Fellow of/ Trinity College Dublin/ ever to be lamented by all that knew/ Him. Extensive learning, zeal, gently tempered/ by a spirit of charity & above all, a strong/ faith & a piety deservedly gained/ the character of a great and good man./ This exceptional man died 12th May 1790/ This picture was his give to Jane [Mary] Crofton, his sincerely [missing] sister.’
Collections:
Rev. Dr Henry Dabzac gift to his sister, Jane Crofton (d.1797);
Sir Hugh Crofton (1763-1834);
By descent to 1990;
Private collection, Dorset to 2020.
Literature:
Robert Staveley, Traces of Past and Present, Dublin, 1895, p.74;
Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800, online edition, no.J3751247
This characteristic pastel portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton was made early in his career; it depicts precisely the kind of education, well-connected Irish sitter who fuelled his success. The Reverend Henry Dabzac was from a distinguished Huguenot family, a celebrated academic historian, Dabzac received the Donegall lectureship in 1764 and from 1785 was Librarian and Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. According to his earliest biographer, Hamilton was the son of a peruke-maker based in Crow Street, Dublin. As Anne Hodge has pointed out, this places Hamilton’s father at the heart of the city: Crow street was a narrow thoroughfare formed part of the busy warren of streets bordered by the old Houses of Parliament and Trinity College at one end, and by Dublin Castle at the other. It is perhaps telling that in this early portrait, Hamilton shows Dabzac in a splendid powdered wig and his clerical bands. In 1754 Hamilton was apprenticed to James Mannin, a ‘pattern drawer’ who two years later was appointed master of the school of ornament at the Dublin Society’s drawing school, run by Robert West. Here Hamilton took the first prize in the 1755 competition, winning a premium of £1/16/. Hamilton developed a popular and profitable method of making pastel likenesses of sitters in a distinctive oval format. Hamilton developed a technique of using a sharpened pastel to hatch shaded areas of the features and, in the case of this portrait of Dabzac, the white powdered wig, which is drawn with particular care. In 1764 Hamilton moved to London where this small, oval pastels proved...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
French 18th Century Pastel Portrait
Located in Cotignac, FR
Late 18th Century French pastel portrait on paper of a young lady in period dress in a 'feigned oval'. In gilt wood frame presented under glass.
Very much of its period and similar ...
Category
French School 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel, Paper, Crayon
18th century ink study for the Leveson-Gower Children
Located in London, GB
Collections: J. Goodfriend, USA.
Brown wash and pencil on laid paper
Framed dimensions: 13.25 x 11.75 inches
This powerful drawing was made at the time that Romney was painting the famous group portrait of the Gower Children now in Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal. Romney was a bold and incisive draughtsman who made numerous rich brown ink studies, principally for historical compositions; by contrast, comparatively few studies linked directly to his portraits survive. The existence of a group of studies for the Gower Children underscores its importance to Romney. The sitters were the five youngest of the eight children of Granville, 2nd Earl Gower who, at the time the portrait was commissioned, was President of the Council in Lord North’s government and one of the best-connected and most influential people in England. The present drawing which is a large scale treatment of the composition in its final form perfectly distils Romney’s conceit: the younger children dancing whilst their elder sister, in the guise of a Bacchante plays the tambourine. The bold and dramatic study underlines both the artistic confidence and classical grandeur Romney gained during his trip to Italy between 1773 and 1775.
The commission from Granville, 2nd Earl Gower to paint five of his children came shortly after Romney’s Continental tour. The initial idea, as represented by the present drawing, seems to have been to paint Lady Anne, the figure on the right of the composition playing the tambourine, who was the youngest of Gower’s first four children by his second wife Lady Louisa Egerton and who married the Rev. Edward Vernon Harcourt, later Archbishop of York, with three of her younger half-siblings by Gower’s third wife, Lady Susanna Stewart: at the left Lady Georgina, who became Countess of St Germans following her marriage to the Hon. William Eliot; at the right Lady Charlotte Sophia, later Duchess of Beaufort and in the centre Lady Susanna, later Countess of Harrowby. Romney added a fifth child to the finished portrait, Gower’s son: Lord Granville, later created Viscount Granville and Earl Granville. In Italy Romney had produced a large number of studies of classical antiquities and old master paintings.
The commission from Gower offered Romney the opportunity to explore a complex multi-figural group, putting into practice the kind of ambitious classical quotations that Reynolds was currently exploiting. In 1773 Reynolds had completed the remarkable group portrait of the Montgomery Sisters, now in the Tate Gallery, London, which showed them adorning a herm of the Roman god Hymen; the composition used a garland to link the three figures who were shown in classical costume dancing at the foot of a Roman sculpture. Scholars have long pointed to a similar sources for the two compositions: the works of Nicolas Poussin. Whilst the Montgomery Sisters is based, in part, on a Bacchanal now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Gower Children has always been associated with Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time, now in the Wallace Collection, London. It seems more likely that Romney was looking to an antique source in the form of the Borghese Dancers, a Roman relief, then in Palazzo Borghese in Rome. Romney would have seen the relief of interlocking, dancing maidens and would also have known Guido Reni’s Aurora...
Category
Old Masters 18th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil, Ink
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