With thanks to Latham scholar, Desmond Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin, for his views concerning this portrait. Born between 1700 and 1704 Fulwar Craven was the younger son of William, 2nd Baron Craven, by his wife Elizabeth Skipwith, after whose brother Sir Fulwar Skipwith he was presumably named. Educated at Rugby School and Magdalen College, Oxford, [read more]

Margaret ‘Peg’ Woffington, was born in Dublin around 1714. Her charm and beauty as a child attracted much attention quickly resulting in her first stage role at the precocious age of 10. Her first important appearance was as Ophelia in 1737 in Dublin, followed by her greatest role, the male part of Sir Harry Windair [read more]

This fine 19th century pastel portrait of the philosopher Rousseau is directly drawn from the original by La Tour now in the Musee Antoine Lecuyer, Saint Quentin, France. As the art historian Neil Jeffares observes, “a good many repetitions of La Tour’s works were made in his lifetime: some are evidently autograph…Others may be contemporary [read more]

Literature : A catalogue of a collection of pictures : painted by Mr. Worlidge, Of Covent-Garden, 1754 This intriguing painting directly follows Giovanni Baptistta Pittoni’s compositon of “The Sacrifice of Polyxena” which is now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA. It appears to be so precise in that regard, even to the size of [read more]

Antoine Clériade de Choiseul-Beaupré was born on the 28th September 1707 at Chateau Daillecourt in the Haute-Marne region of France. He studied theology in Paris later being ordained and becoming Vicar-General of the Mende diocese. He was elected archbishop of Besançon, in March, 1755 and created Cardinal Priest by Pope Clement XIII in November 1761. [read more]

This newly discovered portrait is one of six known versions that Dance undertook of Sir Robert Murray Keith. Completed either for officials, friends or family, Dance was known to finish multiple portraits of the same sitter in this manner; in 1760-61 he painted four versions of the conversation piece showing Sir James Grant with three [read more]

Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1780, no. 4 Literature: Sir Ellis Waterhouse ‘The Dictionary of 18th century Painters’, 1981, illustrated p. 144 A popular subject for artists, the character of Maria from Laurence Sterne’s book ‘A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy’ caught the imagination of many, including Angelica Kaufman and Joseph Wright of Derby. Catherine Gordon [read more]

The portrait presented here is an excellent example of Gardner’s work displaying well the spontaneous nature of his approach to creating an image. The pale face is delicately rendered with pastel whilst the body and background are created with a thickly applied composite, heavily impasto and hugely effective. Of note also is that this picture [read more]

With thanks to Neil Jeffares for his help in cataloguing this work. The Nine Muses of Greek Mythology were daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus; deities that gave artists and philosophers the necessary inspiration for creation. The Greek poet Hesiod reveals that they were called Muses as the Greek word “mosis” refers to desire and wish; [read more]

With thanks to Charles Noble, the Curator at Chatsworth House, who confirmed the attribution. This hitherto unrecorded portrait of Georgiana relates to several works at Chatsworth by John Downman, which are studies for the double portrait of her and Lady Elizabeth Foster which now hangs at Ickworth house. Another virtually identical study to the portrait [read more]

A number of amateur landscape artists were active in southern India in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, mostly army officers, one of the earliest being Colonel Francis Swain Ward. Trained as an artist, he forsook this profession and joined the East India Company sailing for India in 1757. Although promoted to Lieutenant in [read more]

With thanks to Mary Webster for confirming the attribution on first hand inspection of the portrait. George Colman the younger was a playwright, writer of scurrilous satiric verse, and theatre manager whose comic operas, farces, melodramas, and sentimental comedies were box-office successes in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. An intelligent young man he [read more]

Exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Yale Center for British Art, U.S.A. The great English school of satirical caricature founded more or less by Hogarth, attained its full development in the last decades of the 18th Century and the early years of the 19th. Rowlandson and Gilray were its most prominent members, but a [read more]

Louis Charles d’Orléans, Comte de Beaujolais was born at the Palais-Royal in Paris. He was the third and youngest son of Philippe d’Orléans, Duc d’Orléans (1747-1793) later known as Philippe Égalité, and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, (1753-1821), the greatest heiress of the age being the only surviving child of the vastly wealthy Duc de [read more]

Haagen is recorded as Chief of Police in Copenhagen during 1800-1809 and therefore over-saw a difficult period during the Napoleonic wars. At the time Denmark was pursuing a status of neutrality and had joined the League of Armed Neutrality with Russia, Sweden and Prussia. Unfortunately the British considered this a hostile act and attacked Copenhagen [read more]

This finely drawn and sensitive study of a lady probably depicts a member of the Londonderry family executed around 1810. A large and influential Irish family, Lawrence famously painted Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, more commonly known as Viscount Catlereagh, the important Regency politician. Sir Thomas Lawrence was born in Bristol and began his [read more]

The ancient fortress city of Seringapatam (now called Srirangapatna or Srirangapatnam) was the capital for the Muslim rulers of the kingdom of Mysore, Haidar Ali (c.1722 – 1782) and his eldest son, Tipu Sultan (1753 -1799). It was located on an island in the Cauvery River and derived its name from the ancient Hindu temple [read more]

The sitter was the second and youngest son of John Purchas of Cambridge and entered the Navy in 1803 under the patronage of Admiral Sir Henry Trollope and served the greater part of his time as midshipman under the Hon. Alan HydeGardner in various vessels on the channel and North sea Stations. He was consequently [read more]

Catherine Stephens was an English soprano and actress, and daughter of Edward Stephens, carver/gilder, of Grosvenor Square, London and caused a society scandal when she became the Countess of Essex in 1838. In 1807 she began to study singing with Gesualdo Lanza under whose care she appeared in various provincial towns. After 1822 she took [read more]

Mary Beale specialized in painting small-scale copies of larger works by the great court artist Sir Peter Lely. Commissioned mostly by members of the nobility, from whom she would often borrow the original work; Mary spent as much time on these intricate studies as she did on her three-quarter length portraits, usually charging the same [read more]

I am grateful to Dr Robert E. Gerhardt, who is compiling the catalogue of van Musscher’s works – to include this portrait – for his views on this painting and suggesting an artist likely to be working in the painter’s circle. Previously, Dr. Marjorie Wieseman, curator of Dutch Pictures, National Gallery, London suggested van Musscher [read more]

From about 1675 de Troy established a steady portrait practice including ambassadors and royalty, and as a result of such commissions he was able to work continuously in court circles for almost fifty years. Admired for his ability to capture the upper classes and their preoccupation with manners and fashion he was perhaps more importantly [read more]

Edward Byng was the principal studio assistant of Sir Godfrey Kneller, initially employed about 1693 as a general assistant and then as drapery painter. By Kneller’s death in 1723 he was a close colleague, clearly held in high esteem, as he is mentioned in his will as having “for many years faithfully served me” and [read more]

Edward Byng was the principal studio assistant of Sir Godfrey Kneller, initially employed about 1693 as a general assistant and then as drapery painter. By Kneller’s death in 1723 he was a close colleague, clearly held in high esteem, as he is mentioned in his will as having “for many years faithfully served me” and [read more]

I am grateful to Caroline Pegum – who is compiling the catalogue of Jervas’s works to include this painting – for her views on this portrait. Elizabeth Churchill was the third daughter and co-heiress of the great English general John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. She married Scroope Egerton 4th Earl of Bridgewater in February [read more]

The sitter was the posthumous son of Francis Wenman (d.1599) of Caswell House, Oxfordshire and Frances Goodier of Polesworth Hall, Warwickshire. His father died in Ireland in late August 1599, three months before his birth at Polesworth, and he became the ward of Sir Allen Apsley, then an Anglo-Irish official. It is uncertain how far [read more]

The portrait presented here is a head and shoulders version from the full length of Charles I painted c.1636 and now at the State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg. Glad in armour and wearing the gold chain of the garter, the King is presented as a military leader, as opposed to his earlier depiction by van Dyck [read more]