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Powerful Portraits
Citizens and Kings
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David's student Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres won the Prix de Rome in 1801. He delayed accepting his scholarship to Italy until 1806 given the turbulence in France. During this time frame he began to produce portraits, including one of the Emperor Napoleon seated on the Imperial Throne. |
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Sir Joshua Reynolds was considered the leading portraitist during his career. He served as President of the Royal Academy. Reynolds studied in Italy copying the Renaissance masters. While working from Raphael paintings in the Vatican he came down with an illness that resulted in his becoming all but deaf, an affliction that remained throughout his life. |
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Goya was appointed the principal painter of the Spanish Royal family in 1799. From 1808-1813 France occupied Spain and the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte placed his brother Joseph on Spain's throne and kept Goya as the royal portraitist. |
With a sharp wit Goya convinced the triumphant Spaniards, who overthrew Napoleon and returned the monarchy to Ferdinand VII, that he wasn't guilty of colluding with the enemy. He pointed out he had not worn the medal given to him by the French and the Spanish accepted his word. Goya kept his political views private and whilst painting the Bonapartes and the Spanish Royals he also painted the Duke of Wellington, the man who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo. The latter work is a testament to Goya's political savvy. He had all but completed an equestrian portrait of Joseph Bonaparte in 1812, but that was the year Madrid was liberated and he simply finished the work by placing the Duke of Wellington's head in place of that of Bonaparte.
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After Sir Thomas Lawrence painted Queen Charlotte's portrait his career took off in 19th Century England. Upon the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lawrence became the official Royal painter to the court of George III. In 1818 as an envoy of the Prince Regent (later George IV) he was tasked with traveling to the continent and painting all of the European military leaders responsible for Napoleon's defeat. |
The exhibit looks at earlier rulers with magnificent paintings of Louis XVI, George III and Catherine the Great.
Title: The Byam Family, 1762-66
Artist: Thomas Gainsborough (English 1727-1788)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 249 x 238.8
Permanent Collection: The Andrew Brownsword Arts Foundation
on long-term loan to the Holburn Museum of Art
Photo © The Andrew Brownsword Arts Foundation, Bath
Image Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts
Like any process art and its application alters over time and with other influences. This exhibition explores the transformations upon the portrait in the wake of the fall of Napoleon and the deaths of the master portraitists, David and Goya, to those who continued their craft.
Citizens and Kings
Portraits in the Age of Revolution, 1760-1830
Royal Academy of Arts:
February 3, 2007 - April 12, 2007