Portraits

Style of Sir Godfrey Kneller

after HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER

THOMAS HUDSON

Follower of AMBROSE McENVOY

Portrait of a Gentleman

Primitive School

Mary Beale

Portrait of a Merchant

Portrait of a Young Man

Gilbert Jackson

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Gertrude Braud

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Style of Sir Godfrey Kneller
1646 - 1723
Portrait of William Russell, Lord Russell
Oil on canvas
Image size: 12 x 11 inches (30 x 28 cm)
In a period carved gilt frame

William Russell, Baron Russell (29 September 1639 – 21 July 1683), was an English politician. He was a leading member of the Country Party, forerunners of the Whigs, who opposed the succession of King James II during the reign of King Charles II, ultimately resulting in his execution for treason.

after HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER
1497 – 1543
Portrait of William Warham
Oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Image size: 35 x 38 inches (89 x 71 cm)

Hand made contemporary style frame

Painted between the early 17th and mid 18th century. The handling of the paint in this portrait and the overall appearance of the picture suggests that the artist was a talented early seventeenth-century copyist who has faithfully replicated the earlier composition of Hans Holbein the Younger.

The level of detail suggests that the artist had access to both a pattern and the… Show Full Description original painting when producing this work.

Last of the pre-reformation archbishops of Canterbury, William Warham was born around 1450 in the Hampshire town of Malshanger. Educated at Winchester, he then went on to train as a lawyer at New College Oxford. He proved his skills as a diplomat in his role as Master of the Rolls under Henry VII and was later ordained and made Bishop of London and Keeper of the Great Seal in 1502.

In 1504 he was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor, presiding over both the coronation of the new King Henry VIII and his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in 1509. He would later be called upon to act against his conscience and assist Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in attempting to negotiate with the papacy to arrange an annulment for Henry’s marriage to Katherine. Wishing to avoid the king’s displeasure, Warham remained compliant to the crown during the divorce proceedings and submissively accepted Henry as supreme head of the English Church in 1531, but in 1532 he felt compelled to voice his true feelings and published a protest against the Reformation.

He was perhaps saved retribution from the crown by his death by natural causes several months later. Hans Holbein’s original sketch of Warham is housed in the royal the collection at Windsor Castle and his finished portrait, after which this work was painted, currently hangs in the Louvre. Erasmus, a close friend of Warham, had sent him a portrait of himself painted by Holbein as a token of their friendship, and it was perhaps this that prompted the Archbishop to have his own likeness recorded in 1527 in a similar pose to that of his friend.

This fine copy of Holbein’s portrait of Warham was painted between the early 17th and mid 18th centuries. The work is of a high quality and the artist has accurately re-created the same look of weariness in the old man’s face and the naturalistic play of shadow across flesh in Holbein’s original. The depiction of the Archbishop’s regalia is also faithful to the highly detailed rendering in Holbein’s work and displays a great deal of skill on behalf of the copyist.

Hans Holbein (1497/8–1543) was the first great British artist, and is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. He moved to England from Basel in 1526–8 and then again in 1532–43, an extremely turbulent time in English history when all around were losing their heads.

Thomas Hudson
1701 – 1779
Portrait of Mrs Faber
Oil on canvas
Image size: 29 x 24 ½ inches (74 x 62.5 cm)

Original gilt frame

MRS. FABER
Mrs Faber was the wife of John Faber Jr. (circa 1695 – 1756 ) a famous Mezzotint printer and engraver of the time. Born in Amsterdam, Faber learned drawing and mezzotint engraving from his father before attending the Academy in St Martin’s Lane. Faber was highly regarded as an engraver of portraits and was prolific in his output.
A number of artists employed Faber to make prints after their work. He turned many of Thomas Hudson’s works into prints and a print version of this painting can be viewed at the National Portrait Gallery.
John Faber is best remembered for his forty-seven plates of members of the Kit-Kat Club, (after Kneller), and a series of twelve portraits entitled, "Beauties of Hampton Court".
He died in 1756 and according to Horace Walpole , Mrs. Faber remarried a lawyer by the name of Smith.

THOMAS HUDSON 1701–1779
Thomas Hudson was a celebrated 18th century portrait painter. Born in Devon in 1701 he studied under the artist Jonathan Richardson and married his daughter –against Richardson’s wishes.

He had many artistic friends including William Hogarth and Francis Hayman and travelled with them in Europe in 1748. He also visited Italy with the sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac in 1752. Hudson’s style of portraiture proved so successful that for a decade from 1745 to 1755 he was London’s most popular portrait painter and made a fortune painting the cream of London society and members of the Royal Family.

He was also a talented teacher,perhaps too good, as subsequently a number of his former assistants overtook him in popularity including the artist Joshua Reynolds .

Hudson retired in the late 1750’s and died in Twickenham in 1779.
His most notable works include portraits of King George II and George Friedrich Handel and his “Portrait of a Nobleman in Van Dyck dress.”

Many of Hudson's works may be seen in art galleries. These include the National Portrait Gallery, the National Maritime Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Foundling Museum and the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. His works are also in Museums across the world.

LITERATURE
Ellen G. Miles, Thomas Hudson (1701–1779) Portraitist to the British Establishment, PhD thesis, Yale 1976, pub. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor

EXHIBITIONS
Ellen G. Miles and Jacob Simon, Thomas Hudson, 1979, Kenwood House

Follower of Ambrose McEvoy
Circa 1910
Portrait of a Lady
Oil on canvas
Image size: 20 x 16 inches (51 x 40.5 cm)
Original ebonised Frame

Circle of Gerard van Honthorst
1592 - 1656
Portrait of a Gentleman
Oil on wooden panel
Image size: 29 x 23 inches
Contemporary gilt frame

Gerard van Honthorst was a Dutch Golden Age Painter. Early in his career he visited Rome, where he had great success painting in a style influenced by Caravaggio. Following his return to the Netherlands he became a leading portrait painter.

Primitive School

Early 19th Century

Portrait of a Young Girl

Oil on canvas

Image size: 12 x 9 ½ inches

Original frame

Charming portraitof a young girl with the face being quite detailed.

Circle of Mary Beale
1633 - 1699
Portrait of a Gentleman
Oil on canvas
Image size: 30 x 25 inches
Contemporary gilt frame

Mary Beale was the daughter of a Suffolk clergyman.She married Charles Beale, an artist's colour-man, in 1652. Beale worked professionally from the mid-1650s, producing numerous portraits, particularly of her family and friends. She was a friend of Sir Peter Lely. Many details of her busy working life are recorded in the notebooks kept by her husband, Charles Beale, who acted as her studio assistant.

English School
Circa: 1580
Portrait of a Merchant
Oil on oak panel

Image size: 6.4 cm
Hand carved giltwood frame

Provenance: Agnews

French School

18th Century

Portrait of a Young Man

Pastel on paper

Image size: 9.5 x 6.5 inches

Gilt frame

Gilbert Jackson

English, active 1620 – 1650

Portrait of a Girl

Oil on panel, signed upper left and inscribed upper right

Image size: 24 ½ x 20 inches

Ornate 18^th Century carved giltwood frame

Gilbert Jackson was an accomplished English portrait painter, active between 1621 and 1643. Little is known about Jackson’s life – he was probably a London based artist but he seems to have travelled around various parts of England, painting members of the local gentry and their families. He was made a freeman of the Painter-Stainer’s Company in 1640.

This charming portrait displays many of the features attributed to Jackson. In contrast to his foreign contemporaries Daniel Mytens, Sir Anthony Van Dyck and Paul Van Somer, who were working at the court around this time, Jackson followed a more traditional English style, reminiscent of works from the Elizabethan era. The way that the sitter’s face quietly recedes into the background of this portrait is reminiscent of the naïve charm of earlier portraits, yet the face is saved from flatness or stiffness by the delicate, knowing expression which Jackson has brought to the eyes, and by the well observed line of the mouth, which brings life to the girl’s confident smile.

Other features of Jackson’s work are the detailed way in which he depicts costume and, in particular, his bold use of colour. Here the artist has chosen a teal background, which is strikingly bright next to sumptuous scarlet of the sitter’s gown and the ribbon in her hair. Jackson’s skill is evident in his handling of the light as it catches the lace on the dress and passes through the fine material of the intricate collar, and in the way that he brings across the light, wispy texture of the girl’s hair in contrast to the hard, smooth surface of the pearls at her ears and around her neck.

An inscription at the top of the painting gives us part of the artist’s signature, (upper left), as well as the initials and age of the sitter, (upper right). The sitter aged 14 is most likely the daughter of a noble family, painted during one of the artist’s trips outside London.

Other prominent works:

Portrait of John Belasyse, 1^st Baron Belasyse of Worlaby, The National Portrait Gallery, London.

Portrait of a Lady, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Portrait of Jane Lambert, The National Museum of Cardiff, Cardiff.

Follower of Sir Peter Paul Rubens

17th Century

Portrait of Thomas Howard

Oil on canvas

Image size: 10 x 13 inches

Original carved giltwood frame

Gertrude Braud

British 19th Century