View allAll Photos Tagged portrait_design
Tee shirt designers, Galilee RI. Sweet people as I remember, nice enough to pose for me. ;-)
Scan from 5x7 print, circa 1982
Pentax K-1000
Tri-X
Federico Fiorentino Yacht Designer
#FedericoFiorentino #Yacht #Yachtdesign #Design #Designer #Fiorentino #Superyacht #TheBelafonte #Megayacht #Belafonte
A wallpaper featuring Jeff Hardy's very own 'Self Portrait' design. There's a reason they call him the risk-taking, daredevil-like, Charismatic Enigma!
For more Jeff Hardy wallpapers and bigger resolutions,
visit www.unchained-wwe.com
#AbFav_LOVE_💝
Another "flower-face", Dolores de la Rosa brings you a gift...
And love, for the month of February
LOL and thank you, M, (*_*)
For more of my other work visit here: www.indigo2photography.com
Please do not use any of my images on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
rosebud, rose, leaves, pink, face, caress, kiss, portrait, design, "black background", square, studio, COLOUR, NikonD7000, "Magda Indigo"
Illustrations Package
Top left: iPhone case + Whiskey bottle
Top Middle: Pencil Drawing
Top right: Watercolor painting
Bottom Left: Generative Portrait
Bottom second left: Pixelart
Right and second right: Generative Portrait
Doncaster’s Miners Statue is much more than a piece of public art—it’s a heartfelt tribute to the region’s rich mining heritage and a celebration of the community’s resilience. Commissioned as part of the town centre’s regeneration, the project involved acclaimed international sculptor Laurence Edwards, who immersed himself in the local history by engaging directly with former miners and community members. Their personal stories were captured through wax-portrait sessions, and these portraits were later cast in bronze, interweaving individual memories into the very fabric of the monument .
The central piece of the installation is a striking 6‑foot bronze miner emerging from between two rock formations—a symbolic nod to the arduous journey of miners ascending the mineshaft at the end of a long shift. The rock itself is adorned with a “seam” of bronze portraits—designed to echo the seams of coal that were so vital to the local industry. This innovative design not only memorializes the hard work and sacrifices of those who toiled underground but also serves as a dynamic narrative archive where each face represents a unique personal story from the mining community.
Week 42 of 52 - Reflections of "M" Pearl for the self-portrait group checking out the designer show homes. One of my very best friends, Crick in the picture with me.
From Egbertine van Loon - 212 - 2995 Princess Crescent Coquitlam, B.C. V3B7N1 to mevr C. ten Have- Althuis - Anton Mauvestraat 8 Heemstede Holland - Dated 11 X 1994
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Frederick Horsman Varley, also known as Fred Varley (January 2, 1881 – September 8, 1969), was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven artists.
Varley was born in Sheffield, England in 1881. He studied art in Sheffield and attended Académie royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, where he worked on the docks. He immigrated to Canada in 1912 on the advice of another Sheffield native (and future Group of Seven member), Arthur Lismer, and found work at the Grip Ltd. design firm in Toronto, Ontario.
Beginning in January 1918, he served in the First World War with C.W. Simpson, J.W. Beatty and Maurice Cullen. Varley came to the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, who arranged for him to be commissioned as an "official war artist." He accompanied Canadian troops in the Hundred Days offensive from Amiens, France to Mons, Belgium. His paintings of combat are based on his experiences at the front. Although he had been enthusiastic to travel to France as a war artist, he became deeply disturbed by what he saw:
“ We’d be healthier to forget [the war], and that we never can. We are forever tainted with its abortiveness and its cruel drama".
Varley's Some Day the People Will Return, shown at Burlington House in London and at the Canadian War Memorials Exhibition, is a large canvas depicting a war-ravaged cemetery, suggestive that even the dead cannot escape the destruction.
Group of Seven
In 1920, he was a founding member of the Group of Seven. He was known for painting landscapes. He painted people in green, pink, or purple. His and A.Y. Jackson's contribution in the war influenced work in the Group of Seven. They chose to paint Canadian wilderness that had been damaged by fire or harsh climates. Varley's major contribution to art is his work with the Group of Seven. He was the only original member of the Group of Seven to specialize in portraiture.
After living in Ontario for a number of years, Varley moved to Vancouver, BC in 1926 where he became Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the School of Decorative and Applied Arts in Vancouver at the invitation of Charles Hepburn Scott. He remained in this position from 1926 until 1933. He left British Columbia in 1936 due to his experiences with depression, and two years later joined fellow artists on a trip to the Arctic in 1938. In 1954, along with a handful of artists including Eric Aldwinckle, he visited the Soviet Union on the first cultural exchange of the Cold War.
He died in Toronto in 1969 and was buried alongside other members of the Original Seven at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection grounds in Kleinburg, Ontario.
In Markham, Ontario, the Varley Art Gallery is named after him, as is Fred Varley Drive, a two-lane residential street in Unionville. Varley lived nearby at the Salem-Eckhardt House from 1952 to 1969.
On 6 May 1994 Canada Post issued 'Vera (detail), F.H. Varley, 1931' in the Masterpieces of Canadian art series. The stamp was designed by Pierre-Yves Pelletier based on an oil painting "Vera", (1931) by Frederick Horsman Varley in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The 88¢ stamps are perforated 14 x 14.5 and were printed by Leigh-Mardon Pty Limited.
His secure place in the art history of Canada is verified by the government's decision to reproduce his self-portrait as a 17-cent postage stamp. On 22 May 1981 Canada Post issued 'Frederick H. Varley, Self Portrait' designed by Pierre Fontaine. The stamps are based on an oil painting "Self Portrait", (circa 1945) by Frederick Horsman Varley in the Hart House Permanent Collection, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. The 17¢ stamps are perforated 12.5 and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited (Wikipedia).
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 59
•Date: 1777-1779
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 238.4 × 147.2 cm (93⅞ × 57 15/16 in.)
oFramed: 266.4 × 175.3 cm (104⅞ × 69 in.)
•Credit Line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection
•Accession Number: 1937.1.95
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Sir Joshua Reynolds, British, 1723-1792
Overview
Reynolds sought to elevate British painting, including portraiture, to the lofty realms of classical expression. After traveling to Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice, Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy, which had been founded in 1768. Through his teaching at the Academy and the publication of his annual lectures, the Discourses, he urged the adoption of grand classical values and the study of Greek and Roman sculpture and Renaissance painting.
In Lady Delmé, Reynolds created an image of idealized, majestic feminine grace that has many precedents in Renaissance art. The pyramidal composition of the sitters, Lady Delmé’s encircling arms and quiet manner, and the regal folds of the deep-rose drapery across her knees are reminiscent of Madonna and Child compositions by Raphael.
The rich, warm colors of the informal landscape and the beautifully controlled movement of light into the deep reaches of the background owe much to Titian. Finally, Reynolds’ sensitive use of everyday, intimate details prevents the portrait from becoming remote and unapproachable. The tenderness with which Lady Delmé holds her two children, the nuances of personality in the three faces, the realistic costumes of the young sitters, and the attentive posture of the Skye terrier give the painting a worldly, familiar context.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire. Charles J. Wertheimer [1842-1911], London.[1] (Christie, Manson & Wood, London); purchased c. 1900-1901[2] by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Robert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1]Wertheimer’s name is in the list of former collections given for the painting on the Duveen Brothers invoice (see note 3).
[2]Connoisseur 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan
[3]The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
•Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
•Delmé, Peter
•Delmé, Seymour Robert
•Duveen Brothers, Inc.
•Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
•Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
•Satterlee, Herbert L., Mrs.
•Wertheimer, Charles J.
Exhibition History
•1895—Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130.
•1899—Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170.
•1908—Aedlre Engelsky Künst, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro.
•1908—Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.).
•1928—Fifteen Masters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13.
•1937—Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (souvenir, repro. 56).
Technical Summary
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.[1] There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
[1]A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4: 1296).
Bibliography
•1865—Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 2:202, 302.
•1899—Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 1:241; 4:.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro., as Lady Betty Delmé and Children.
•1941—Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 167, no. 95.
•1941—Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 68, pl. 191.
•1942—Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 17.
•1949—Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 106, repro.
•1952—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 134, color repro.
•1960—Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 12, color repro.
•1963—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro.
•1965—Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.
•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:350, color repro.
•1968—European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 101, repro.
•1975—European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.
•1975—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 504, color repro.
•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 502, color repro.
•1985—European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 348, repro.
•1992—Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 213-215, repro. 214.
•1992—National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 149, repro.
•1999—Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 374, color repro.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 278-279, no. 225, color repro.
From British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries:
1937.1.95 (95)
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
•1777-1779
•Oil on Canvas, 239.2 × 147.8 (94⅛ × 58⅛)
•Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Technical Notes
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.’ There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 July 1894, no. 63), bought by (Charles J. Wertheimer), London, from whom it was purchasedc. 1900-19012 by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers), New York, who sold it 15 December 1936 to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh.
Exhibitions
Works by the Old M asters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130. Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170. Aeldre Engelsk Künst, Ny Csiúsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro. Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Kónigliche Akademie der Klinste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.). Fifteen M asters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (illustrated souvenir, repro. 56).
Lady Elizabeth Howard (1746-1813), third daughter of Henry, 4th Earl of Carlisle, married Peter Delmé in 1769 and, after his death in 1789, became the wife in 1794 of Captain Charles Gamier, R.N., who was drowned in 1796. Delmé, of wealthy Huguenot descent, was, through the influence of his wife’s family, M.P. for Morpeth from 1774 to 1789. He inherited Titchfield Abbey (demolished 1781) and in 1771 built Cams Hall, Fareham, Hampshire, a few miles away. Their two eldest children, Isabella Elizabeth (d. I794)3 and John (1772-1809), are depicted on the right and in the center of the portrait respectively. The couple had three other children, all sons, born in 1774,1775, and at a date unknown.
Lady Elizabeth sat to Reynolds in April 1777.4 A sitting in June 1780, canceled on account of the Gordon riots,5 seems unlikely to have been connected with any change to this portrait, by then finished and engraved. In June 1777 there were two sittings for “Master Delmé” and the “Delmé Children. “6 Payment was made in June 1780, when Reynolds recorded in his account book the receipt of three hundred pounds.7
The picture is one of Reynolds’ noblest and most successful family portraits. The design is pyramidal and, although Lady Elizabeth is looking out at the spectator rather than at her children, it is strongly reminiscent of such Raphael Madonnas with the Christ Child and Saint John as the Madonna in the Meadow. The chiaroscuro is carefully contrived, and the swathes of drapery over Lady Elizabeth’s knees, influenced in their elaboration by Bolognese seventeenth-century painting, give the composition a rhythmic sense of movement. The beech trees that support the figure group are more massive than was customary with Reynolds; these trees, suggestive of the canopy behind a Madonna in an Italian altarpiece, together with the Titianesque vista on the right, add to the impression of a work deliberately painted in emulation of the Old Masters. Lady Elizabeth’s hair, high piled with a scarf intertwined and a ringlet falling over the right shoulder, is dressed in the height of fashion, and her two children are wearing contemporary dress. The intimate naturalism with which Reynolds has painted the children and their terrier serves as a perfect foil to his idealized representation of Lady Elizabeth, personifying the adult world, and to the high seriousness of the work as a whole.
A mezzotint by Valentine Green was published by him on 1 July 1779 and another, by Samuel William Reynolds, is undated.
Notes
1.A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4:1296).
2.Conn 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan.
3.Isabella’s birth date is not known, but, on the assumption that the child on the right of the picture is a girl, she must have been the eldest child, born in 1770 or 1771.
4.Leslie and Taylor 1865 (see biography), 2:202.
5.The entry is struck through in Reynolds’ sitter book.
6.Graves and Cronin 1899-1901 (see biography), 4:1544-1545-7. Malcolm Cormack, “The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” The Walpole Society 42(1970’), 150.
References
•1865—Leslie and Taylor 1865, 2:202,302.
•1899—Graves and Cronin 1899, 1:241; 4:1296,1544-1545.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900:202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont M organ at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro.
•1941—Waterhouse 1941: 68, pi. 191.
•1949—Mellon 1949: no. 95, repro.106.
•1976—Walker 1976: no. 504, color repro.
•1990—Shawe-Taylor, Desmond. The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society. London,1990: 192-193, color fig. 127.
in frame: @deadlyladyz13
Location @elysiumstu
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Phillip Moud:
Puported to be the marriage portrait sent to the Danish Court to seduce, Anne, his future wife This portrait has been referred to by Sir Roy Strong, as being one of the most important portraits of James VI and it is unarguably the most significant image of
him remaining in private hands. It has been dated to c. 1585, when James was still only King of Scotland and would have been around nineteen years of age.
It is of particular significance in the study of the iconography of James, in that it is the only known image of him in his late teens. His iconography is relatively incomplete for a royal figure, due to James'' apparent personal dislike of sitting for his picture and to the decline in the standards of portrait production in his reign. Weldon states that James could never be brought to sit for the taking of that [picture], which is the reason of so few good pieces of him.
However, in this portrait unlike almost all others of him, we gain a sense of the individual, as well as the more commonly encountered divine Stuart persona - as perceived in the renderings of De Critz and Van Sommer. This apparent individuality is attributable perhaps as much to the physical change in the sitter from youth to manhood, as to the probable purpose for which the image was intended. We also become aware for the first time of the physical characteristics and the alleged homosexuality for which he was renowned. Weldon in his Court and Character of King James gives a contemporary description of his appearance:
He was of middle stature, more corpulent through his cloathes than in his body...of a naturally timorous disposition...his eye large, ever rowling after any stranger came in his presence...
The German inscription and its provenance suggest that the picture was commissioned for an intended Continental destination. In 1585, the approximate year that this portrait was painted, an embassy was sent to Denmark from Scotland to begin marriage negotiations with the Danish court. The official language of the Danish court was German. This ultimately led to the marriage between James and Anne of Denmark in 1595. An exchange of images was the most common and accepted form of preliminary contact in potential alliances of this kind. Sir James Melville mentions in his Memoirs, that in 1588 James's embossier returned from both Denmark and Navarre with paintings of his prospective brides.
The unique nature of this image adds weight to the speculation that this was a marriage portrait designed to entice a royal bride from the Danish court. While there is no surviving record of the acceptance of a pre-Nuptial portrait of James in Denmark, an early inventory of pictures belonging to King Christian in 1600 at the castle of Kronborg, tantalizingly lists a portrait of the English King.() This must refer to a portrait of his brother-in-law, James I which was subsequently moved along with the other royal portraits to the castle of Frederiksborg. It would appear most likely that this portrait of James is the one that was recorded at Kronborg, although there is no record of how it entered the collection of Count van Rechteren Limpurg-Almelo, where it was recorded in 1936. However, a member of the Rechteren family was a distinguished diplomat in the late seventeenth century and it is possible that it was acquired directly from Frederiksborg at around this date.
This portrait is almost certainly the product of Adrian Vanson, an artist of Flemish origins, who had by May 1584 succeeded Arnold Bronckorst as official painter to the Scottish Court. Vanson was active at Court until at least 1601 and unlike Bronckorst, received some form of civic patronage. In December 1585 he was freely admitted as a burgess of Edinburgh for guid and thankfull sendee to be done to the guid towne under the express condition that he tak and Instruct prenteisses. Vanson was apparently the only painter at Court entrusted with portraiture at this period and a further three portraits of James have been attributed to him.
Letter from Sir Roy Strong, 22nd July 1987.
Roy Strong, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 1969, p. 178.
Sir A. Weldon, The Court and Character of King James, 1650, reprinted by G.Smeeton, London, 1817, p.55.
Op.cit. note 3, pp. 55-9.
Sir James Melville, Memoirs, Bannatyne Club 1827.
Povl Eller, Painters of Royal Portraits in Denmark 1630-82, Copenhagen 1971.
Scottish Records Office, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, E22/6,
fo. 184. Vanson in place of Arnold Brukhorst was allowed a half-yearly fee
of £50.
Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh 1573-1589, Edinburgh 1882, p.446.
See: Duncan Thomson, The Life and Art of George Jamesone, Oxford 1974, p.46-8.
Part of a Picnic with a Watermelon on a summer afternoon. Was really fun... as when a children game.
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 59
•Date: 1777-1779
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 238.4 × 147.2 cm (93⅞ × 57 15/16 in.)
oFramed: 266.4 × 175.3 cm (104⅞ × 69 in.)
•Credit Line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection
•Accession Number: 1937.1.95
•Artists/Makers:
oArtist: Sir Joshua Reynolds, British, 1723-1792
Overview
Reynolds sought to elevate British painting, including portraiture, to the lofty realms of classical expression. After traveling to Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice, Reynolds became the first president of the Royal Academy, which had been founded in 1768. Through his teaching at the Academy and the publication of his annual lectures, the Discourses, he urged the adoption of grand classical values and the study of Greek and Roman sculpture and Renaissance painting.
In Lady Delmé, Reynolds created an image of idealized, majestic feminine grace that has many precedents in Renaissance art. The pyramidal composition of the sitters, Lady Delmé’s encircling arms and quiet manner, and the regal folds of the deep-rose drapery across her knees are reminiscent of Madonna and Child compositions by Raphael.
The rich, warm colors of the informal landscape and the beautifully controlled movement of light into the deep reaches of the background owe much to Titian. Finally, Reynolds’ sensitive use of everyday, intimate details prevents the portrait from becoming remote and unapproachable. The tenderness with which Lady Delmé holds her two children, the nuances of personality in the three faces, the realistic costumes of the young sitters, and the attentive posture of the Skye terrier give the painting a worldly, familiar context.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire. Charles J. Wertheimer [1842-1911], London.[1] (Christie, Manson & Wood, London); purchased c. 1900-1901[2] by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Robert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1]Wertheimer’s name is in the list of former collections given for the painting on the Duveen Brothers invoice (see note 3).
[2]Connoisseur 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan
[3]The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
•Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
•Delmé, Peter
•Delmé, Seymour Robert
•Duveen Brothers, Inc.
•Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
•Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
•Satterlee, Herbert L., Mrs.
•Wertheimer, Charles J.
Exhibition History
•1895—Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130.
•1899—Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170.
•1908—Aedlre Engelsky Künst, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro.
•1908—Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.).
•1928—Fifteen Masters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13.
•1937—Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (souvenir, repro. 56).
Technical Summary
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.[1] There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
[1]A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4: 1296).
Bibliography
•1865—Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 2 vols. London, 1865: 2:202, 302.
•1899—Graves, Algernon and William Vine Cronin. A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. 4 vols. London, 1899-1901: 1:241; 4:.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900: 202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro., as Lady Betty Delmé and Children.
•1941—Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 167, no. 95.
•1941—Waterhouse, Sir Ellis. Reynolds. London, 1941: 68, pl. 191.
•1942—Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 241, repro. 17.
•1949—Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 106, repro.
•1952—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 134, color repro.
•1960—Cooke, Hereward Lester. British Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Eight in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 12, color repro.
•1963—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 319, repro.
•1965—Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 113.
•1966—Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:350, color repro.
•1968—European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 101, repro.
•1975—European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 302, repro.
•1975—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: no. 504, color repro.
•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 361, no. 502, color repro.
•1985—European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 348, repro.
•1992—Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 213-215, repro. 214.
•1992—National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 149, repro.
•1999—Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 374, color repro.
•2004—Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 278-279, no. 225, color repro.
From British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries:
1937.1.95 (95)
Lady Elizabeth Delmé and Her Children
•1777-1779
•Oil on Canvas, 239.2 × 147.8 (94⅛ × 58⅛)
•Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Technical Notes
The light- to medium-weight canvas is twill woven; it has been double lined. The ground is not discernible through the discolored varnish and thick paint layers, but is probably white. The painting is richly executed in a complex of different layers and techniques. The lowest paint layer is gray; the middle layers are thickly applied, white in the lights, the drapery, and background, and dark in the tree trunks, foliage, and shadows; the final layers defining detail contain nonoil additives and include rich brown, red, and blue glazes in the foliage, sky, and landscape, and in parts of the figures. The painting seems to have been retouched and revarnished by Reynolds in 1789.’ There are many shallow, overpainted losses throughout the painting. Broad craquelure marks most of the dark, rich browns, indicating the presence of bitumen. The varnish, which appears to be a natural resin, is difficult to distinguish from the final glazes and has discolored yellow to a significant degree.
Provenance
Painted for the sitter’s husband, Peter Delmé [1748-1789], Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire; by descent to Seymour Robert Delmé, Cams Hall, Hampshire (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 7 July 1894, no. 63), bought by (Charles J. Wertheimer), London, from whom it was purchasedc. 1900-19012 by J. Pierpont Morgan, Sr. [1837-1913], New York; bequeathed to his daughter, Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee [d. 1946], who owned it until c. 1930. (Duveen Brothers), New York, who sold it 15 December 1936 to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh.
Exhibitions
Works by the Old M asters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1895, no. 130. Loan Collection of Pictures and Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R A. and of a Selection of Pictures by Some of His Contemporaries, Corporation of London Art Gallery, 1899, no. 170. Aeldre Engelsk Künst, Ny Csiúsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, 1908, no. 29, repro. Aelterer Englischer Kunst, Kónigliche Akademie der Klinste, Berlin, 1908, no. 68 (souvenir volume, 73, repro.). Fifteen M asters of the Eighteenth Century, Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, 1928, no. 13. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Philip Sassoon’s, 45 Park Lane, London, 1937, no. 26 (illustrated souvenir, repro. 56).
Lady Elizabeth Howard (1746-1813), third daughter of Henry, 4th Earl of Carlisle, married Peter Delmé in 1769 and, after his death in 1789, became the wife in 1794 of Captain Charles Gamier, R.N., who was drowned in 1796. Delmé, of wealthy Huguenot descent, was, through the influence of his wife’s family, M.P. for Morpeth from 1774 to 1789. He inherited Titchfield Abbey (demolished 1781) and in 1771 built Cams Hall, Fareham, Hampshire, a few miles away. Their two eldest children, Isabella Elizabeth (d. I794)3 and John (1772-1809), are depicted on the right and in the center of the portrait respectively. The couple had three other children, all sons, born in 1774,1775, and at a date unknown.
Lady Elizabeth sat to Reynolds in April 1777.4 A sitting in June 1780, canceled on account of the Gordon riots,5 seems unlikely to have been connected with any change to this portrait, by then finished and engraved. In June 1777 there were two sittings for “Master Delmé” and the “Delmé Children. “6 Payment was made in June 1780, when Reynolds recorded in his account book the receipt of three hundred pounds.7
The picture is one of Reynolds’ noblest and most successful family portraits. The design is pyramidal and, although Lady Elizabeth is looking out at the spectator rather than at her children, it is strongly reminiscent of such Raphael Madonnas with the Christ Child and Saint John as the Madonna in the Meadow. The chiaroscuro is carefully contrived, and the swathes of drapery over Lady Elizabeth’s knees, influenced in their elaboration by Bolognese seventeenth-century painting, give the composition a rhythmic sense of movement. The beech trees that support the figure group are more massive than was customary with Reynolds; these trees, suggestive of the canopy behind a Madonna in an Italian altarpiece, together with the Titianesque vista on the right, add to the impression of a work deliberately painted in emulation of the Old Masters. Lady Elizabeth’s hair, high piled with a scarf intertwined and a ringlet falling over the right shoulder, is dressed in the height of fashion, and her two children are wearing contemporary dress. The intimate naturalism with which Reynolds has painted the children and their terrier serves as a perfect foil to his idealized representation of Lady Elizabeth, personifying the adult world, and to the high seriousness of the work as a whole.
A mezzotint by Valentine Green was published by him on 1 July 1779 and another, by Samuel William Reynolds, is undated.
Notes
1.A newspaper report dated 19 September 1789 stated that this and some other portraits “which for many years have been lodged in his infirmary” now “by the help of fresh varnish and a few vivifying touches from his pencil, again claim our notice” (Graves and Cronin 1899-1901, 4:1296).
2.Conn 3 (1901), 206, notes this portrait as recently sold to Pierpont Morgan.
3.Isabella’s birth date is not known, but, on the assumption that the child on the right of the picture is a girl, she must have been the eldest child, born in 1770 or 1771.
4.Leslie and Taylor 1865 (see biography), 2:202.
5.The entry is struck through in Reynolds’ sitter book.
6.Graves and Cronin 1899-1901 (see biography), 4:1544-1545-7. Malcolm Cormack, “The Ledgers of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” The Walpole Society 42(1970’), 150.
References
•1865—Leslie and Taylor 1865, 2:202,302.
•1899—Graves and Cronin 1899, 1:241; 4:1296,1544-1545.
•1900—Armstrong, Sir Walter. Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1900:202.
•1907—Roberts, William. Pictures in the Collection of J. Pierpont M organ at Prince’s Gate & Dover House, London: English School. London, 1907: unpaginated.
•1941—Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 264, repro.
•1941—Waterhouse 1941: 68, pi. 191.
•1949—Mellon 1949: no. 95, repro.106.
•1976—Walker 1976: no. 504, color repro.
•1990—Shawe-Taylor, Desmond. The Georgians: Eighteenth-Century Portraiture and Society. London,1990: 192-193, color fig. 127.
Boo-Ya!
This year's Christmas card. 5 portraits taken sequentially. bokeh letters are from large christmas lights against black seamless about 15 feet behind the subject
I cut out each 1/2" letter from black mat board and took a photo with each letter held up to the lens to create the bokeh of the lightbulbs then comped them in PS.
The different colors are from the different colors of lights.
Strobist: Each portrait was taken with an Olympus FL-36R at 1/16 in a 20" softbox at a slight camera right and high angle (center & far right photos flipped for composition in PS) and rim light with a gridded Vivitar 285 on low power directly behind subjects.
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instagram: @BoulevardP
email: BlvrdP@gmail.com
"What's the hardest thing about game design?"
"Making things work. In almost all cases, the concepts and design you come up with don't work in reality, and you spend the rest of the time trying to work out why...that and crying into your computer.”
It’s been a tiring day, doing some holiday shopping in York. I saw some interesting characters there but sadly this is not Humans of York :) On the way I made a stop off in Leeds and came across Robin here. It was a brilliantly sunny start to the day and she was dressed to embrace it.
Robin told me she had studied game design and we talked for a while about video games in general, the phenomenon that is flappy bird, and about what she was doing now. She is currently just ‘milling around’ (her words), not having much direction, but taking the opportunity to see what comes up.
It was interesting to talk to her about game design, as I work in software design, so there was much overlap. I’ve never cried into my computer however, though I’ve seldom swore at it.