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For more on the Worcester Art Museum, see last week’s post. This post looks at six French and English portraits of the 18th century – not room by room, but in chronological order. 

This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/aKbH5hW1DGY.

1708, French: Rigaud

Remember the van der Voort portraits of sober Dutch burghers that we saw last week? This portrait was painted only a hundred years and 300 miles away, but what a difference! Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) was Louis XIV’s favorite painter by 1688, and Louis XV’s favorite as well. When the French monarchy’s wealth, power, and extravagance were all at their dizzying peaks, Rigaud executed hundreds of portraits of kings, nobles, and courtiers, emphasizing their rank and wealth as much or more than their personality. D’Allonville was a diplomat and soldier as well as a nobleman.

1744, British: Hogarth

British portraiture came into its own in the mid-18th century, when France wallowed in debt and Britannia began to rule the waves. William Hogarth (1697-1764) was one of the most famous portraitists of the period. Here his subjects are Elizabeth and William James, wealthy British landowners (here and here). Hogarth is also famous for painting a series of satires of British society that were published far and wide in a series of engravings: the WAM has one from The Rake’s Progress.

Ca. 1763-64, British: Gainsborough

The sitters are simple, elegant, and much more relaxed than any of those we’ve seen in earlier portraits. Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) painted at least five double portraits of his daughters, and several more individual ones; often, as here, he shows how close the two were. Gainsborough was a favorite with British aristocrats and the fashionable set. Among portraitists of this time, his only rival was Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Circa 1761, British: Reynolds

And here’s an elegant painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). (The Worcester Art Museum’s curators have really done a marvelous job of acquiring representative works of major artists!) Reynolds was first president of the Royal Academy when it was established in 1768, and as such had enormous influence on British painting. His sitter here is Isabella Carr, who became the second wife of the 15th Earl of Erroll, a Scottish nobleman, a year after Reynolds painted this portrait. The Earl and Isabella were the parents of an even dozen children.

1768, British: Cotes

Baron Craven, an avid fox hunter, is portrayed in hunting attire. Placing a seated figure in front of a landscape background was popular among British portraitists and, through them, became popular among American portraitists, too – as we’ll see in a couple weeks. Francis Cotes (1726-1770) was the most fashionable London painter after Gainsborough and Reynolds.

Next week: 19th-century European portraits at the Worcester Art Museum.

More

• For the Resurrecting Romanticism conference in October 2023, I’m working on a talk on art at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, a.k.a. the Columbian Exposition. One of the questions I’ll be addressing is why the organizers of the Exposition, and the painters whose works appeared there, were so very keen to surpass the buildings and exhibitions of the 1889 Paris world’s fair. As background this series of posts is a quick overview of European portraits from the Renaissance to the 19th century, and then American portraits. Eventually I’ll post on other paintings at the Worcester Art Museum.
• If the history of Western painting interests you, check out my Innovators in Painting: a 140-page survey focusing on innovations that gave painters more power to make their viewers stop, look, and think about paintings.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here. For examples of favorite recommendations from past years, click here.