ART: Sir Joshua Reynolds - "Heads of Angels"

Description: ART: Sir Joshua Reynolds - "Heads of Angels" - 1908: Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specializing in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds's principal compositional source for the picture was a red chalk drawing of four cherubs' heads by the Italian seventeenth-century artist, Carlo Maratta (1625-1713), which Reynolds had acquired in 1779 at the studio sale of his master Thomas Hudson (1701-79), and which is now in the British Museum. The five year old Lady Frances Gordon sat to Reynolds for this unusual portrait in July and August 1786, and again in March 1787. Reynolds generally had very few portrait appointments during the summer months, reserving this time for work on character studies (known as 'fancy pictures') and subject pictures. It is not perhaps surprising, therefore, that the present composition, which is composed of a series of studies of Frances Gordon's head from five different angles, is far more reminiscent of Reynolds's fancy pictures than his portraits of named sitters. This Undivided Back Era postcard, mailed in 1908, is in good condition, but there is edge wear and some scraping. No. 538.

Price: 8.5 USD

Location: Brooklyn, New York

End Time: 2024-11-14T03:38:47.000Z

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