This book is the first to explore English family portraiture
in the 18th century, a varied category ranging from small-scale
conversation pieces to grandiose, full-length images. Kate Retford
probes this much-loved genre to trace the values and meanings
behind these compositions.
While early images by artists such as Arthur Devis depicted
sitters stiffly posed, later in the century scenes of affection
and intimacy were created by portraitists like Thomas Gainsborough
and Joshua Reynolds. In the country-house collections, portraits
first emphasized ancestry and inherited virtue, but later emphasized
the domestic merits of the family. The Art of Domestic Life
contributes a wealth of visual evidence to the history of the
family. It offers important insights into both the innovations
and traditions in family portraiture of this period, drawing
on in-depth research into paintings, the lives of the sitters
depicted, and the domestic spaces in which portraits were hung.
— Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in
British Art
A Passion for Performance features three lively essays--by Robyn
Asleson, Shelley Bennett, Mark Leonard, and Shearer West--that
explore the life and career of the English actress Sarah Siddons
(1755-1831), who was renowned for her majestic beauty and impassioned
performances. This lavish volume also illuminates her relationships
with a number of artists who portrayed her, bringing together
fifty-six portraits of Siddons including works by Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, Thomas Lawrence,
and Gilbert Stuart, along with a chronology of the actress'
life.
The product of many years' research, this Dictionary examines
over 5,000 British portrait artists providing much original
biographical information, never before published. Portraits
make up the largest section of the art market but in the past
there has been scant coverage on the large numbers of men and
women artists who specialized in what is arguably the most difficult
of all subject matter to paint. Broad surveys on the subject
have mostly focused on court painters and a favored few, but
rarely examine the full spectrum of the profession with its
wealth of talent. This book combines every kind of information
needed by collectors, dealers, museums, libraries and auction
houses. Original research has been gleaned from parish registers,
monumental inscriptions, census returns, marriage licenses,
wills, directories and contemporary accounts. Engravers of the
artists' work are also listed to assist diligent researchers
identify anonymous sitters and provide art historians with an
indication of the contemporary availability of an artist's compositions.
The illustrations have been carefully selected in order to show
as many rarely seen unpublished works as possible.
The National Portrait Gallery (British) by Charles
Saumarez Smith – Hardcover, 248 pages (July 1997) Natl
Portrait Gallery Pubns
The Gallery's collection of portraits constitutes an extraordinary
survey of five centuries of British painting, from Henry VII
to Jane Austen, Samuel Pepys to Salman Rushdie, portrayed by
great artists from Holbein to Avedon. This selection reflects
the range and diversity of British life over the last five hundred
years, and provides a fascinating overview of the faces that
created our history and culture. 248 pages, 220 illustrations,
200 in colour.
Among the manifold lessons history may teach is the skillful
use of public relations—as used, for example, in the court
of Elizabeth I. Four centuries ago, the sovereign’s flaks
and spinmeisters did a job, unmatched since, in the promotion
of the cult of Gloriana (i.e., Elizabeth), celebrated as the
maiden ruler for some 45 years during her life (and a long time
thereafter). No longer would the Catholic Virgin Mary reign
in England; the Protestant Virgin Queen would be venerated in
her place. British art historian Strong’s (Elizabeth R,
1971, etc.) study, first published in Britain a generation ago
and now available in the US as an elegant paperback, elucidates
Elizabethan propaganda as it was practiced through the masterful
use of poesy, pictures, and pageants—all designed to enhance
the image of the Tudor queen. Familiar Elizabethan pictures
are parsed to fix the scene and time.
The National Portrait Gallery has such an importan t collection
of 16th century portraits that a whol e gallery, known as The
Tudor Gallery, is devoted to them. There is the 'Ditchley' portrait
of Eliza beth I, as well as the Gallery's first ever acquis
ition, a portrait of William Shakespeare.
One was stabbed to death in an attempted coup. Another was portrayed
as a villain in one of Shakespeare's plays. They are among the
kings and queens who ruled Scotland over the last nine hundred
years. This engaging book reveals the personalities of the Scottish
monarchy and notes the landmark events of each reign. Meet Alexander
III, who launched a successful bid to recover the Western Isles
from the King of Norway, and later married his daughter to the
king's son; James V, who often moved among the peasants disguised
as a farmer, listening to their opinions and seducing their
daughters; and the rest of the royal line. Portraits of the
monarchs let you put faces to the stories. 96 pages, 30 color
illus., 10 b/w illus., 3 3/4 x 5 1/2.
The English Face
by David Piper – Paperback Publisher: National Portrait
Gallery (April 1992)
The book is a survey written by David Piper, the Assistant Keeper
of the National Portrait Gallery.
"His method is to take the face of each period in turn,
as depicted in the works of its portrait-painters, miniaturists,
caricaturists, photographers—not forgetting of course,
the influence of such adventitious factors as wigs, cosmetics,
hairstyles and the like. There is for example, the Elizabethan
face, stiff and starchy; the face of the Glorious Revolution,
when noses were worn lofty and long, and so on down the ages
to the bewhiskered Victorian face and the Edwardian face of
the man of the world. Mr Piper shows that each age sets up for
itself a particular norm of beauty or handsomeness. Obviously,
not every face is equal to the strain put upon it. Hence the
never-ending conflict between the sitter and the artist.
The five hundred years covered by Mr Piper's survey of what
painters did to sitters and sitters to painters, are a wittty
and entertaining cavalcade. He is not beyond asking whether
the English face actually exists. his answer will astonish,
amuse and perplex anyone who thinks himself—or herself,
for that matter—the proud possessor of an English face."
The
English Masters Boxed Set Format:
Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC; Number of discs: 6
DVD Release Date: August 29, 2006
Run Time: 300 minutes
The Great Artists chronicles the lives, times and works
of the men whose genius have captivated the art world for generations.
Informative and entertaining, this series highlights important
events in each artist’s life, explores their stylistic
trademarks and provides detailed explanations of their techniques.
The Great Artists also features expert commentary and
analyses from leading authorities, art historians and scholars,
new location footage and extensive period re-creations. The
programs in this series contain an in-depth look at the English
Masters.
Undoubtedly, the first great painter to hail from England, William
Hogarth’s work was a witty and brilliant satirical depiction
of English society. This was a society with flaws and Hogarth
was not afraid to condemn, as well as praise. With these characteristics
combined, Hogarth was able to produce his greatest works, Modern
Moral Subjects including The Rake’s Progress and Marriage
á-la-Mode which are still admired for their humor and
vitality.Hogarth was also a portraitist and his great ambition
led him to work in the Grand Manner of European history painting.
This fascinating program includes all new location footage including
a visit to Hogarth’s House in West London and St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital and other inspirational London locations, re-creations
and reconstructions, studies of the great works and commentaries
and analyses from leading authorities, art historians and scholars.
Possibly the greatest-ever English portraitist and landscape
artist of 18th century England, Thomas Gainsborough had undoubtedly
the most famous individual image. The celebrated Blue Boy is
just one of hundreds of powerfully impressive images created
by Gainsborough. By the middle of his life, he was a master
at depicting the men, women and children of his day, and his
genius made him a wealthy man. However, Gainsborough’s
real passion was landscape painting and he worked in both genres
throughout his life. The Fancy Pictures created towards the
end of his career, were a result of combining landscape and
portraiture, which are now seen by many as his greatest achievement.
More...
In this interdisciplinary volume, historians of art, literature,
dress, and theater examine the impact of the actress on British
art and culture of the Georgian era. From the celebrated doyennes
of the stage to the demireps on the periphery of the profession,
female performers are shown to have played a vital and hitherto
under-appreciated role in the artist's studio, forging fruitful
collaborations with leading artists and becoming nearly as influential
in the studio as on the stage. Acting as models, muses, and
patrons, actresses inspired a remarkable proliferation of images
in which issues of theatricality, sexuality, and social mobility
were explored in ways that were impossible in depictions of
more "respectable" women.
Below
Stairs: 400 Years of Servants' Portraits by Giles Waterfield,
Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Other Contributor) –
Hardcover: 212 pages Publisher: National Portrait Gallery (January
2003)
This handsomely illustrated book discusses portraiture as a
cultural and political phenomenon in eighteenth-century England.
Marcia Pointon offers detailed historical analyses of portraits
by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hogarth, and others, showing how
portraiture of the period provided mechanisms for constructing
and accessing a national past and for controlling a present
that appeared increasingly unruly.
The portly figure of Henry VIII depicted by Holbein may be very
familiar, but this book reveals much more about the portrait,
the sitter, the artist, and his workshop. It gathers together
and analyzes the several copies and variants of Holbein’s
Whitehall cartoon of Henry VIII, more than one of which is by
the only significant painter immediately after Holbein in England,
Hans Eworth.
The book reveals for the first time the results of extensive
technical analysis and historical research undertaken on surviving
versions of the portrait in the Walker Art Gallery, Chatsworth,
Petworth, Trinity College, Cambridge, and elsewhere. It throws
light not only on Henry VIII but on the Tudor court and on courtiers
who, for their own purposes, wished to keep his memory alive
after his death. The book explores how and when the portraits
were painted and the motivation behind their production and
also traces how they affected subsequent portrayals of the monarch,
down to film and television.
Henry VIII: Images of a Tudor King
by Christopher Lloyd, Simon Thurley, London, England) Hampton
Court (Richmond upon Thames) – Paperback: 128 pages Publisher:
Phaidon Press (March 1996)
In this bold new study, Wendorf compares two arts--biography
and portrait-painting--that have often been linked in a casual
way but whose historical connections have remained unexplored.
Reassessing the great age of English portraiture--from the arrival
of Van Dyck to the publication of Boswell's Life of Johnson--Wendorf
reveals that, despite their obvious differences, visual and
verbal portraits often shared similar assumptions about the
representation of historical character. Rooted in modern theory
devoted to the comparison of literature and painting and to
the problem of representation, the book examines each form of
portraiture in terms of the other, bringing into discussion
such writers as Izaak Walton, John Evelyn, John Aubrey, Roger
North, Goldsmith, Johnson, Mrs. Piozzi, Boswell, and such artists
as Van Dyck, Lely, Samuel Cooper, Jonathan Richardson, Hogarth,
and Reynolds.
The story of the kings and queens of England is an enthralling
and sometimes tragic one. Starting with Celtic Britain, this
pictorial survey takes us through the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms, the Norman conquest, the medieval dynasties, Tudors
and Stuarts and Hanoverians and the modern age and royalty of
today. David Williamson, co-editor of Debrett1s Peerage and
Baronetage, draws on a deep knowledge of history to paint sensitive
and vivid portraits of each monarch. His text is enlivened with
anecdotes and complemented by a rich selection of images, chosen
primarily from the wealth of the Collections of The National
Portrait Gallery of London.Oversize format with 118 illustrations,
70 in color and 11 color family trees.
This collection of portraits from Francis Bacon, William Hogarth,
Anthony Van Dyck and others, are filled with striking examples
of people from all walks of life. Also included are six essays
from portrait specialists.
Tudor
and Jacobean Portraits, 2 Vol. Set by Roy Strong –
Hardcover: 700 pages Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (November
15, 1980)
Catalogue raisonne of the Tudor and Jacobean portraits in the
National Portrait Gallery. This work consists of two volumes:
volume 1 is a text on Tudor and Jacobean portraits in the National
Portrait Gallery and volume 2 consists of a microfiche with
693 plates.
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The
Art of Domestic Life: Family Portraiture in Eighteenth-Century
England
Portrait
Miniatures: National Galleries of Scotland
by Stephen Lloyd – Paperback: 112 pages Publisher: National
Galleries Of Scotland (January 25, 2007)
Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully
History's Beauties: Women And the National Portrait Gallery,
1856-1900 (British Art and Visual Culture Since 1750)
Picturing
Imperial Power: Colonial Subjects in Eighteenth-Century British
Painting
A
Passion for Performance: Sarah Siddons and Her Portraitists
Dictionary of British Portrait Painters Up to 1920
Portraits, Paintings and Busts in the Royal College of Surgeons
of Edinburgh
The Portrait in British Art 
Edwardian Portraits: Images of the Age of Opulence
The National Portrait Gallery
The Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry
National Portrait Gallery Book of Elizabeth: 1558-1603
The Kings & Queens Of Scotland
The English Face
by David Piper – Paperback Publisher: National Portrait
Gallery (April 1992)
Mid-Georgian
Portraits, 1760-1790
The
English Masters Boxed Set
Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC; Number of discs: 6 
The Irish Face: Redefining The Irish Portrait
Notorious
Muse: The Actress in British Art and Culture, 1776-1812
Below
Stairs: 400 Years of Servants' Portraits
Romantics
& Revolutionaries: Regency Portraits from the National Portrait
Gallery London
Hanging
the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-Century
England 
Henry VIII Revealed: Holbein's Portrait and Its Legacy
Henry VIII: Images of a Tudor King 
The Elements of Life: Biography of Portrait-Painting in Stuart
and Georgian England
The National Portrait Gallery History of the Kings and Queens
of England
The British Portrait 1660-1960
Family
and Friends: A Regional Survey of British Portraiture
Tudor
and Jacobean Portraits
The
Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain from Van Dyck to Augustus John, 1630-1930
The
Portrait in Britain and America With a Biographical Dictionary of Portrait Painters 1680-1914
