18th Century and Earlier Portrait Paintings

This small portrait, from an important Florentine collection, (unframed 14x10 cm.) is signed and dated on the lower edge "Io(hannes) Baptista Scarlattius Rondinelli Fecit Anno 1754."...

Oil on canvas Image size: 13 x 16 1/2 inches (33 x 42 cm) Contemporary style frame (Image below) Provenance Private European Collection Darnley Fine Art offers this boldly brushed ...

Portrait of a Girl holding a Posy. Oil on Panel 17 1/2 x 13 inches 44.4 x 33 cm ABOUT THE ARTIST:  Jacques d'Agar  was a French portrait painter born i...

Amazing painting of Cleopatra oil on canvas with a gilt wood frame. Attributed to Giuseppe Diamantini (Fossombrone 1621-Venice 1705) The dramatic subje...

Vittore Ghislandi, called Fra Galgario Provenance: Robert L. and Bertina Suida Manning, New York, ca. 1966-1996 Private Collection, USA Exhibited: “Eighteenth Century European Pai...

This head and shoulders portrait is an outstanding example of the breadth, force and beauty of this artist's pictorial manner and abilities. This captivating portrait features a musi...

Jan Kupetsky (1667 - 1740) Czech School An artist grinding colours, possibly a self-portrait Oil on canvas Signed, verso : "Joseph Prinzig" Provenance: Private Collection, Hungary ...

Oil on canvas Image size: 30 x 35 inches (76.25 x 89 cm) Carved gilt frame A half-length portrait of a man turned slightly to the left, gazing at the spectator, standing, wearing st...

Circle of Cornelis Dusart Dutch 1660 - 1704 Portrait of a Man Oil on panel Image size: 7¾ x 5¼ inches Giltwood frame Cornelis Dusart Cornelis ...

Dipinto di scuola toscana della seconda metà del XVII secolo raffigurante un ritratto maschile di tre quarti, immerso nell'eleganza e nella maestosità proprie dell'epoca. La figura è...

George Knapton 1698-1778 Portrait of a Girl Oil on canvas Image size: 20 x 18 inches Original giltwood frame This beautiful half length portrait  of a young woman, turned to left, gazing at the spectator, wearing a pink, white lace-embroidered, dress, in her hair a pink bonnet trimmed with lace to match her dress. The depiction of a young girl epitomises child portraiture of the late eighteenth century, in which painters such as William Beechey, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough had begun to discover and express the true character of children, in contrast to the stiff, miniature-adults of previous generations. The Artist Knapton was born in Lymington, one of four sons of James Knapton. He was apprenticed to Jonathan Richardson from 1715 to 1722, and in 1720 was a founding subscriber to the academy of St. Martin's Lane established by Louis Chéron...

Italian painting of Alphonsus Liguori in French Neo-Gothic Frame Italian and French, Late 18th and 19th Century Frame: Height 61cm, width 39cm, depth 6cm Panel: Height 28cm, width 22...

Oil on canvas Image size: 17 x 23 1/2 inches (43 x 60 cm) Contemporary William Kent hand made frame

A late 17th/early 18th century Flemish painting measuring 90 x 70 cm without frame and 100 x 80 cm with a contemporary frame. An important characteristic of this painting is its str...

Oil on canvas Image size: 20 x 24 inches (51 x 61 cm) Period gilt frame This is a half-length portrait of a gentleman wearing a emerald coat and intricately designed waistcoat, dat...

French Art Rococo Portrait of a Woman, Young Lady, perhaps an actress

Oil on canvas Image size: 28 3/4 x 24 inches (73 x 61 cm) Contemporary style gilt frame This portrait is an evocative example of Devis' Regency period portraiture, featuring a pleasant looking young girl holding a book in an outdoor setting. Working with a darker palette, a strongly accented diagonal recession, and dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, Devis heightens the girl's three-dimensional physical presence in the foreground of the composition. The Artist  Arthur William Devis (10 August 1762 – 11 February 1822) was an English painter of history paintings and portraits. He painted portraits and historical subjects, sixty-five of which he exhibited (1779–1821) at the Royal Academy. Among his more famous works are a depiction of the Death of Nelson and a posthumous portrait of Nelson. Devis was born in London, the nineteenth child of the artist Arthur Devis and his wife Elizabeth Faulkner. Devis was the younger brother of the painter Thomas Anthony Devis (1757–1810) and of the schoolmistress and grammarian Ellin Devis (1746–1820), teacher, among others, of author of Maria Edgeworth and Frances Burney (later novelist Madame d'Arblay). He followed his elder brother Thomas Anthony in becoming a pupil at the Royal Academy Schools in 1774 and like his brother exhibited at the Free Society of Artists, of which in 1768 their father had become president, and at the Royal Academy. Early on he came to the notice of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He was appointed draughtsman on the British East India Company's packet Antelope in a voyage in 1783, under Captain Henry Wilson. In her he was injured in an encounter with Papuans near the Schouten Islands and was then wrecked on the Pelew Islands before proceeding to Canton and thence to Bengal. During his voyages, the artist received arrow wounds, one of which inflicted permanent injury on his lower jaw. During his time in Bengal, he painted a portrait of Sir William Jones, at the time a judge in Fort William. The painting now hangs at the British Library. He was back in London by 1795 and is recorded on 21 July 1797 as living at 27 George Street, Hanover Square, where he was insured by the Sun Assurance Office. He is noted for his involvement in the creation of the posthumous cult of Horatio Nelson. As she returned from Trafalgar, Devis went out to meet HMS Victory and was present on board the ship during the autopsy of Nelson's body conducted by Dr Beatty, the ship's surgeon. With the help of sketches he took at that time, he painted a heroic Death of Nelson, which proved a sensation. Devis also painted Dr Beatty, and was commissioned by him to produce a half-length painting of Nelson as vice-admiral, which he lent to Emma Hamilton (who later lost it in an accident whilst travelling). Either the original or a copy of this portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy two years after the Battle and many copies were made of it. Lord Howe owned one, and another ended up in the collection of the National Maritime Museum. It also appeared as an engraving in Beatty's published account of Nelson's death. Other work includes a portrait of King George III on horseback, and a range of portraits of admirals and generals, along with historical subjects, such as the Babington Plot and the signing of the Magna Carta...

Portrait Of A Gentleman Holding Flowers, circa 1600 Flemish School Large circa 1600 Flemish School portrait of a man holding flowers wearing a plumed hat, oil on panel. Exceptional...

Amazing painting of Cleopatra oil on canvas with a gilt wood frame. Attributed to Giuseppe Diamantini (Fossombrone 1621-Venice 1705) The dramatic subje...

Oil on oak panel Image size: 14 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches (36 x 30 cm) Period style frame This portrait shows Chaucer with a string of beads in one hand and a writing implement in the other. The Arms in the top left of the picture are the Arms of Chaucer, featuring a per pale argent and gules, a bend counterchanged. This painting appears to derive, like all other portraits of Chaucer, from an illustration in an early fifteenth-century manuscript, Hoccleve's De Regimine Principum. Here Hoccleve included one portrait of Chaucer, showing him with an inkhorn around his neck and holding a rosary in one hand. Since it is likely that Hoccleve had met Chaucer, many scholars believe this could be the most genuine representation of the English writer with all other depictions being seemingly based on it. In almost all portraits of Chaucer, including this one, the poet is shown wearing a pendant attached to his vest. This item is often considered to be a penner, included in the artworks as a sign of the general occupation of a writer. Whilst the pendant is generally accepted as a case for a writing instrument, possibly with equal plausibility, it has also been suggested that the item is an ampulla, a small lead vial containing water and the blood of St. Thomas Becket...

Amazing painting of Cleopatra oil on canvas with a gilt wood frame. Attributed to Giuseppe Diamantini (Fossombrone 1621-Venice 1705) The dramatic subje...

Bathers On A Mountainous River Landscape, 17th Century attributed to Sisto BADALOCCHIO (1581/85-1647) Fine huge 17th Century Italian Bolognese School Old Master landscape with bathers in a mountainous river landscape, oil on canvas attributed to Sisto Badalocchio. Excellent quality and condition for its age presented in a superb antique gilt frame. Measurements: 120cm x 90cm...

A Bearded Man Tortured By A Spiked Sandal, 17th century Italian School - rare unusual depiction possibly of a martyr Fine 17th Century Italian Old Master depiction of a bearded m...

Questo dipinto riporta sul retro della tela un'iscrizione molto importante il cui testo è “Ritratto di (?) Dom.° Anto. Camerini fatto in Roma l’An: 1784: da Gio. Batta del Era Milane...

Frans Hals 1582-1666 Dutch Portrait of a Gentleman (possibly Theodore Blevet) Oil on panel “Frans Hals is a colourist among the colourists...Frans Hals must have had twenty-seven blacks...