2. British Painting in the 18th century

7/29/2019 2. British Painting in the 18th century

1/45

18th century British Painting

In the 18th century, English painting finally developed a distinct style and

tradition again, still concentrating on portraits and landscapes, but also

attempting, without much success, to find an approach to history of painting.

Portraits were, as elsewhere in Europe, much the most easiest and most

profitable way for an artist to make a living, and the English tradition

continued to draw of the relaxed elegance of the portrait style developed in

England by Van Dyck, although there was little actual transmission from his

work via his workshop. Leading portraitists were

Thomas Gainsborough

Sir Joshua Reynolds

George Romney

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Joseph Wright of Derby

George Stubs

The English portraitists started to be admired abroad, and the artists had

largely ceased to look for inspiration abroad.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 1788):

British portrait and landscape painter

When he moved in 1774 to London he again began to exhibit his

paintings at the Royal Academy, including portraits of

contemporary celebrities, such as the Duke and Duchess of

Cumberland

After having painted the portrait of King George III and his queen

in 1780, he started to receive many royal commissions. This gave

him some influence with the Academy and allowed him to dictate

the manner in which he wished his work to be exhibited

In 1784, the King gave the job to Gainsborough's rival and

Academy president, Joshua Reynolds. Gainsborough remained the

Royal Family's favorite painter, however

Gainsborough was noted for the speed with which he applied his

paint, and he worked more from his observations of nature (and of

human nature) than from any application of formal academic rules.


2/45

Most famous works, such as

Portrait of Mrs. Graham;

Mary and Margaret:

The Painter's Daughters;

William Hallett and His Wife Elizabeth,

nee Stephen,

The Morning Walk;

Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher


3/45

Portrait of Mrs. Graham


4/45

Lady in Blue (c. 1770)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Gainsb7.jpg


5/45

The morning walk


6/45

Cottage Girl with Dog and Pitcher


7/45

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 1792)

Sir Joshua Reynolds: self portrait

one of ten (maybe eleven) children in the family of a village school-master

restricted to a formal education provided by his father

he exhibited a natural curiosity

made extracts into his commonplace book from Theophrastus, Plutarch,

Seneca, Marcus Antonius, Ovid, William Shakespeare, John Milton,

Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Aphra

Behn and passages on art theory by Leonardo da Vinci, etc

The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds wasJonathan Richardson'sAn Essay on the Theory of Painting(1715).

Reynolds annotated copy was lost for nearly two hundred years when it

appeared in a Cambridge bookshop, inscribed with the signature J.

Reynolds Pictor.

From 1749 to 1752, he spent over two years in Italy, where he studied the

Old Masters and acquired a taste for the "Grand Style".


8/45

whilst in Rome, Reynolds suffered a severe cold which left him partially

deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which

he is often pictured.

From 1753 until the end of his life, he lived in London, his talents gaining

recognition

was the dominant English portraitist of 'the Age of Johnson'. It is said that in

his long life he painted as many as three thousand portraits

On 10 August 1784 Allan Ramsey died and the office of Principal painter in

ordinary to the King therefore became vacant. Gainsborough felt that

he had a good chance of securing it but Reynolds felt that he deserved

it and threatened to resign the presidency of the Royal Academy if he

did not receive it.In 1788 Reynolds painted the portrait of Lord Heathfield who became a

national hero for his successful defense of Gibraltar during its Great

Siege from 1779 to 1783 against he combined forces of France andSpain

one of the earliest members of the Royal Society of Arts,

founder of the Society of Artists,

with Gainsborough, established the Royal Academy of Arts as a spin-

off organisation. In 1768 he was made the RA's first President, a

position he held until his death.

As a lecturer, Reynolds'Discourses on Art (delivered between 1769

and 1790) are remembered for their sensitivity and perception. In one

of these lectures he was of the opinion that "invention, strictlyspeaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which

have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory."


9/45

Lord

Heathfield


10/45

Reynolds worked long hours in his studio, rarely

taking a holiday. He was both gregarious and keenly

intellectual, with a great number of friends from

London's intelligentsia, numbered amongst whom

were Dr Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund

Burke, Giuseppe Baretti, Henry Thrale, David

garrick and fellow artist Angelica Kauffmann

A literary party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's'
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/JoshuaReynoldsParty.jpg


11/45

Gilbert Stuart: Reynolds 1784
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Joshua_Reynolds_by_Gilbert_Stuart_1784.jpeg


12/45

George Romney (1734 1802)


13/45

- born in Beckside, Lancashire (now part of Cumbria), the 3rd

son (of 11 children) of John Romney, cabinet maker

- natural ability for drawing and making things from wood -

including violins (which he played throughout his life)

- from the age of 15, he was taught art informally by a local

watchmaker

- his studies began in earnest in 1755, at the age of 21, for a 4-

year apprenticeship with local artist Christopher Steele

- In 1763, Romney entered his painting, "The Death of General

Wolfe", into a Royal Society of Arts competition

- despite his later success, Romney was never invited to join the

Royal Academy (formed 1768), though he was asked, urged

even, to exhibit there

- 1769 he broke through with the exhibition of the large portrait

ofSir George Waren and family at the Free Society of Artists,which was greatly admired and helped to lay the foundations of

his future popularity

- He traveled to France and Italy to study the old masters

- 1782 he was introduced to Emma Hamilton (then called Emma

Hart) who became his muse. He painted over 60 portraits of her

in various poses, sometimes playing the part of historical or

mythological figures

- In the summer of 1799, his health broken, and after an absence

of almost forty years, Romney returned to his wife, Mary. She

nursed him during the remaining 2 years of his life until he died

in November 1802. He was buried in the churchyard of St.

Mary's Parish Church, Dalton-in-Furness


14/45

Emma Hamilton as a bacchante
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/George_Romney_-_Lady_Hamilton_%28as_a_Bacchante%29_3.jpg


15/45

Lady Hamilton as Circe (c. 1782)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/George_Romney_-_Lady_Hamilton_as_Circe.jpg


16/45


17/45

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 1830)

- a child prodigy in the family of an innkeeper

- at the age of ten he was supporting his family with his pastel

portraits

- at eighteen he went to London and soon established his

reputation as a portrait painter in oil

- he receives his first royal commission for the portrait of Queen

Charlotte in 1790

- he stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in

1830

- a brilliant draughtsman and known for his gift of capturing a

likeness, as well as his virtuoso handling of paint

- became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1791, a full

member in 1794, and president in 1820

- he is particularly remembered as the Romantic portraitist of theRegency

- in spite of his success, he spent most of life deep in debt; he

never married


18/45

Sir Thomas Lawrence: Queen Charlotte
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Sir_Thomas_Lawrence_003.jpg


19/45

Sir Thomas Lawrence: George IV coronation
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/George_IVcoronation.jpg


20/45

Sir Thomas Lawrence: Duke of Wellington

- Lawrence's reputation as an artist fell during the Victorian era;

critic and artist Roger Fry restored it in the 1930s, when hedescribed Lawrence as having a "consummate mastery over the

means of artistic expression" with an "unerring hand and eye".

- Sir Michael Levey: "He was a highly original artist, quite

unexpected on the English scene: self-taught, self-absorbed in

perfecting his own personal style, and in effect self-destructing,

since he left behind no significant followers or creative

influence.

Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 1797)

English landscape and portrait painter

acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial

revolution

- notable for his use of

chiaroscuro effect, which emphasizes the contrast of

light and dark, and

paintings of candle-lit subjects paintings of the birth of science out of alchemy, often

based on the meetings of the lunar Society (a group of

very influential scientists and industrialists that

significantly struggled for science against religious

values in the period known as the Age of enlightenment
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Lord_Arthur_Wellesley_the_Duke_of_Wellington.jpg


21/45

Wright went to London in 1751 and for two years studied under a highly

reputed portraitist, Thomas Hudson, the master of Joshua Reynolds

o in 1753 he returned to and settled in Derby and varied his work

in portraiture

o visited Italy where he remained till 1775; he witnessed an

eruption of Mount Vezuvius, which formed the subject of

many of his subsequent paintings

o Wright was a frequent contributor to the exhibitions of the

Society of Artists, and to those of the Royal Academy

He pioneered industrialisation together with

- Richard Arkwright - the creator of the factory system in the

cotton industry;

- William Tate, the uncle to the eccentric gentleman tunneler

Joseph

- Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) from the

Lunar Society which brought together leading industrialists,

scientists, and philosophers

- James Ferguson (17101776) who undertook a series of

lectures based on his bookLectures on Select Subjects in

Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Optics &c. (1760

His factual paintings have metaphorical meaning

- the bursting into light of the phosphorus in front of a praying

figure signify the problematic transition from faith to scientific

understanding and enlightenment,

- the various expressions on the figures around the bird in the air

pump indicates concern over the possible inhumanity of the

coming age of science- a high point in scientific enquiry which began undermining the

power of religion in Western societies


22/45
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/JosephWright-Alchemist.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/JosephWright-Alchemist.jpg


23/45

The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone,

(Joseph Wright, 1771)

Cave at evening, by Joseph Wright, 1774
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Joseph_Wright_004.jpg


24/45

Joseph Wright of Derby, exhibited 1766: A Philosopher Giving a

Lecture on the Orrery (An orrery is a mechanical planetarium

depicting the movements of the planets in the solar system, with

a light in the center representing the sun. In Wrights time,philosopher was a term indicating a scientist)


25/45


26/45

Joseph Wright of Derby (1768)An Experiment on a Bird in the

Air Pump)

A bird, in the glass bowl in the upper center of the image, is used

to demonstrate the air pump visible on the table. The man

conducting the experiment has pumped the air out of the bowl,

threatening the birds life and inspiring a range of emotions

from the audience


27/45

An Iron Forge (Joseph Wright of Derby, 1772) This work,

painted after The Blacksmiths Shop, shows a more mechanized

process, with a hammer doing the work as the smith stands in

the background, arms folded


28/45

The Hermit Studying Anatomy (Joseph Wright of Derby, 1771

1773). Considered to be a companion to The Alchymist, the

painting depicts another night scene of an old man engaged in a

form of scientific research


29/45

George Stubbs (1724 1806)

George Stubbs: A self portrait

- born in Liverpool, the son of a currier and leather merchant- worked at his father's trade until he was 15 or 16, and after his father's

death in 1741 was briefly apprenticed to a Lancashire painter and

engraver

- self-taught. In the 1740s he worked as a portrait painter in the North of

England

- passion for anatomy (and spent 18 months dissecting horses and in 1766

published The anatomy of the Horse. The original drawings are now in

the collection of the Royal Academy)

- In 1759 the 3rd Duke of Richmond commissioned three large picturesfrom him, and his career was soon
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/George_Stubbs_-_self_portrait.jpg


30/45

Mares and Foals in a Landscape
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Stubbs_-_mares_and_foals_in_a_landscape._1763-68._Tate_Britain..jpg


31/45


32/45


33/45


34/45

James Abbott Whistler is born on 11 July in Lowell, Massachusetts

Portrait of Whistler with Hat (1858), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington,

D.C.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Whistler_James_Portrait_of_Whistler_with_Hat_%281858%29.jpg


35/45

American artist, wit and society figure, who lived for most of his lifein London and Paris. He trained as an artist in Paris in thestudio of Charles Gleyre [link Key figures] but his early workwas inspired by the paintings of the Realist painter Gustave

Courbet and by the work of older masters such as Velzquez,Rembrandt, and Thomas Gainsborough. Later he absorbed theinfluences of Japanese and classical art to create works thatwere decorative and virtually subjectless. He was one of thecentral figures in the Aesthetic Movement. He was a man wholiked to live his life in the public eye and was very concernedabout his personal appearance and the critical reception of hispaintings.

Whistler's early paintings were Realist in style, that is, they were

concerned with portraying modern life with all its liveliness,colour and bustle, as well as its dirt, poverty and hardship.These early Realist works were made in reaction to thosepainters and critics who thought that art should only deal withnoble subjects and idealized figures. In this he was greatlyinfluenced by the work of the French Realist painter GustaveCourbet.


36/45

Symphony in White, No. 1, also known as The White Girl. The workshows a woman in full figure standing on a wolf skin in front of a white

curtain with a lily in her hand.

Decorative Painting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whistler_James_Symphony_in_White_no_1_(The_White_Girl)_1862.jpg


37/45

In the 1860s, influenced by art of the Far East and classical sculpture,Whistler developed a new decorative art. The pale colours,graceful forms and elegant flowing drapery were inspired byclassical art. Whistlers friend, the painter Albert Moore waspartly responsible for Whistlers new interest in classical art.

Moore is famous for his paintings of women dressed in flowingclassical robes, in poses based on classical sculpture.

The geometric patterned backgrounds, lack of perspective, flat colourand exotic accessories of Whistlers paintings were drawn fromJapanese prints, for example in Variations in Flesh Color andGreen: The Balcony. Moore also drew from Japanese sourcesin his decorative paintings of the late 1860s, largely due toWhistlers influence.

Japanese Art

In the 1860s European artists were getting excited about Japanesecoloured woodblock prints that were beginning to come intothe country along with items such as Far Eastern fans, kimonosand porcelain. Whistler was among the first artists to placeoriental objects in his paintings, as in for example La Princessedu Pays de la porcelain.

In the 1870s Whistler gained a deeper understanding of Japanesemethods of design, which were very different to those taught inthe art schools of Europe. In response his paintings becamemore simplified and decorative like Japanese art. In hisNocturnes he turned his back on Western techniques forrepresenting perspective, so that his paintings look radicallyflat and almost abstract. Japanese art would have had anobvious appeal to an artist like Whistler, who liked to challengeestablished European views about art.

Music


38/45

Whistler began to call his paintings after musical terms, for exampleSymphonies, Arrangements, Harmonies, Nocturnes, Variationsand Notes, to emphasize that he did not want to imitate nature,whether in his landscapes, portraits or figure studies. Hispaintings were not about subject matter but beauty. They were

to be evocative like music. Whistler declared: "As music is thepoetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, and thesubject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or ofcolour."

Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple, 18831884, Cincinnati Art

Museum, Ohio
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Arrangement_in_Pink_Red_and_Purple_by_James_Abbott_McNeill_Whistler.jpeg


39/45

Nocturne: Blue and Gold Old Battersea Bridge
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/James_Abbot_McNeill_Whistler_006.jpg


40/45

Colour

Whistler believed that colour should be "embroidered" on the canvas.By this he meant that the same colours should reappearthroughout the picture in order to give a sense of harmony andpatterning to the whole. The surface of the picture was oftenmore important than the subject.

Influenced by the Velasquez, Whistler used a limited range of colors,that give his work a quiet elegance and showed a great displayof skill.


41/45

Alfred Sisley (October 30, 1839 - January 29, 1899) was an English

Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life

in France. Sisley is recognized as perhaps the most consistent of the

Impressionists, never deviating into figure painting or finding that the

movement did not fulfill his artistic needs.

Sisley was born in Paris to affluent English parents; William Sisley was

in the silk business, and his mother Felicia Sell was a cultivated music

connoisseur.

At the age of 18, Sisley was sent to London to study for a career in

business, but he abandoned it after four years and returned to Paris.

The Moret Bridge in the Sunlight
http://www.alfredsisley.org/The-Moret-Bridge-in-the-Sunlight-large.html


42/45

Banks of the Loing at Saint-Mammes
http://www.alfredsisley.org/Banks-of-the-Loing-at-Saint-Mammes-large.html


43/45

On the Cliffs, Langland Bay, Wales
http://www.alfredsisley.org/On-the-Cliffs,-Langland-Bay,-Wales-large.html


44/45

A Forest Clearing
http://www.alfredsisley.org/A-Forest-Clearing-large.html


45/45

A Path in Louveciennes
http://www.alfredsisley.org/A-Path-in-Louveciennes-large.html

Documents

2. British Painting in the 18th century