Portrait of a Gentleman
Portrait of a Gentleman
, Thomas Hickey (1741-1824), Robert Healy (1743-1771) and his brother William (fl. 1757-78), Charles Forrest (fl.1765-1780), George Lawrence (1758-1807) and Alexander Pope (1763-1835) all worked in pastel and in chalk, producing such works. Part of the reason for the popularity of the medium was the early training that the artists received in the Dublin Society Drawing School under the tutelage of Robert West (c.1710-1770), who had studied in France probably under Carl van Loo (1805-1765) and François Boucher (1703-1770).){kind=link}
Irish School, 1770s
Portrait of a Gentleman
Half length, wearing a dark jacket and waistcoat and a white stock
Inscribed on old label attached to the backboard: For/Anne Bramwell
Coloured chalks on laid paper
Oval 27.7 by 21.7 cm., 10 ¾ by 8 ½ in.
The present portrait by an as yet unidentified artist is characteristic of the sorts of small-scale atmospheric chalk portraits that were being produced in Ireland during the last decades of the eighteenth century. Artists such as Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740-1808), Thomas Hickey (1741-1824), Robert Healy (1743-1771) and his brother William (fl. 1757-78), Charles Forrest (fl.1765-1780), George Lawrence (1758-1807) and Alexander Pope (1763-1835) all worked in pastel and in chalk, producing such works.
Part of the reason for the popularity of the medium was the early training that the artists received in the Dublin Society Drawing School under the tutelage of Robert West (c.1710-1770), who had studied in France probably under Carl van Loo (1805-1765) and François Boucher (1703-1770).