File:Historical portraits; some notes on the painted portraits of celebrated characters of England, Scotland and Ireland (1897) (14577646518).jpg

Identifier: historicalportra00whea (find matches)
Title: Historical portraits; some notes on the painted portraits of celebrated characters of England, Scotland and Ireland
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Wheatley, Henry B. (Henry Benjamin), 1838-1917
Subjects: Portrait painters
Publisher: London, G. Bell
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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triking example may be citedfrom the Strawberry Hill sale. Walpole possessedtwo fine companion portraits by Reynolds—one ofJames, 2nd Earl of Waldegrave, and the otherof his wife Maria, daughter of Sir Edward Walpoleand afterwards Duchess of Gloucester. The Earlof Waldegrave bought the pair at the sale ; he gotthe husband for ^73 10.?., but he had to give^735 for the wife. In 1894 Reynoldss portraitof Lady Betty Delme was sold at Christies for11,550 guineas, the largest price ever realised forone of his pictures. Thomas Gainsborough (1727—1788) was therival of Reynolds, but he never raised his pricesto the level of that masters, and he was neverseriously supposed to be Reynoldss equal. Mr. Ruskin calls Gainsborough the greatestcolourist since Rubens. It is difficult to explainthe pervading charm of Gainsboroughs femaleportraits; they appeal to all, and there is un-doubtedly that in them which is unlike anyother painter. Sometimes they are too sketchy, 1 Letters, vol. vii., p. 370.
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FROM HOGARTH TO MILLAIS 71 but for beauty and a quiet sense of purity anddomesticity the piciure at Dulwich containing theportraits of Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Tickell isabove all praise. His portraits of men are verypowerful. There are two fine ones at HamptonCourt—Colonel St. Leger, in his red coat, is themost popular, but Johann Christian Fischer, theoboe player, is the better piciure. In 1760 Gainsborough removed to Bath, andraised his price for portraits to 8 and ultimatelyto 40 guineas, or 100 guineas for a full-length.He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and sent hispictures to London by the Bath carrier, namedWiltshire, who was a lover of pictures and refusedto take money for conveying them, so the painterused to pay him in Gainsboroughs instead of cash.This painter is well represented at the NationalGallery, where are his magnificent portraits ofEdward Orpin, the parish clerk of Bradford-on-Avon (one of the pictures given to Wiltshire), theglorious Mrs. Siddons, and the fine Re

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