PORTRAITURE
Category: Architecture + PaintingSide by side with isolated figures, such as Turner and Blake, flourished the second generation of portrait painters, Romney (1734-1802), Hoppner (1758-1810), Raeburn (1756-1823), all excellent painters whom only the unique glory of Reynolds and Gainsborough obliges us to relegate to the second rank. The first has left us numerous and impassioned pictures of the celebrated Lady Hamilton and displayed talent and distinction in his family groups. The pictures of young men and maidens painted by Hoppner are full of charm and refinement. Raeburn’s colour is rich and warm, and his touch broad and vigorous; he has the gift of posing his sitters with decision and really possesses some of the attributes of a great painter. At this happy moment everyone in England painted good portraits, even the historical painters whose heavy compositions once so fashionable, now appear to us so poor and uninteresting. Amongst these were Benjamen West, Reynolds’ successor in the presidency of the Royal Academy, and Opie.
Lawrence (1769—1839) was the painter of kings, of princes, of great diplomats and generals. All these are presented in large full- dress portraits painted with verve and elegance. Lawrence was an important figure at Aix-la-Chapelle and at Vienne during the famous congresses which settled the fate of Europe after the downfall of Napoleon. The “Holy Alliance” is mirrored in the four and twenty canvases which adorn the walls of Windsor Castle — a collection of official portraits forming a unique historical document. He lavished on his portraits, and especially on his portraits of women, his facility of execution, his fluid touch, his rich and always highly distinguished colour, his talent for depicting the pearly bloom of flesh, the sparkle of bright, eyes, the moist quiver of parted lips, the light softness of muslins, the gleam of silks and of velvets.
He displays just as much coquetry in his painting as any fair lady with her airs and graces, cosmetics, powder, pearls and diamonds.