To escape from the horrors of contemporary
British politics, I turn to higher and more inspiring things and invite you to share
with me a canter through the glories of Western portrait painting, a genre
mastered by some of our greatest artists of all nationalities, creeds and
opinions.
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| The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (1434) |
This early Netherlandish painting of an Italian merchant with his betrothed in Bruges, has exquisite detail and has attracted much scholarly disputation. The mirror symbolizes an all-seeing deity, the dog, fidelity, and apparently the lady is not pregnant, but she has a fine green dress! The man has an odd hat to add to his air of lordly superiority, but don’t we all affect such airs?
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| The Doge Leonardo Loredan (1501) by Bellini |
This sumptuous Renaissance portrait of a self-assured
Venetian Doge with his ornamental buttons, fancy cape and peculiar head-dress
was bought by the profligate plutocrat William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey fame
for 13 guineas in 1807 – later sold to the National Gallery in 1844 for £640.
Well, the painting did at least somebody a good turn.
A very familiar piece is Lucas Cranach’s
portrait of his pal Martin Luther, looking resolute if proletarian, quite ready
to nail his Ninety-five Theses through the heads of his enemies as well as on
the door of that church in Wittenburg in 1517.
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| Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach (1529) |
Hans Holbein painted many of the great and good (?) of the 16th century including Erasmus, Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. If you turn a blind eye to his burning alive of some ardent Protestants, Sir Thomas More was credited as a martyred humanist and the Catholics canonized him and made him the patron saint of politicians and statesmen. What a rum constituency that mob make!
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| Thomas More from the Frick, NY by Hans Holbein (1527) |
The 17th century bred many prolific
portraitists as the Dutch Golden Age reached its apogee. An iconic portrait is The
Laughing Cavalier taking pride of place in London’s superb Wallace
Collection. Yet he is neither laughing nor a cavalier. Despite the fine lace,
braid and whiskers he in fact looks like the kind of fellow from whom you would
hesitate to buy a second-hand car.
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| The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals (1624) |
The Stuart dynasty in Britain patronized great artists like Rubens, and three versions of Charles I were served up by Anthony van Dyck in his famous portrait. Charles’ salad days were all too brief and in 1649 he walked through the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall, ceiling adorned by Rubens’ apotheosis of his father James I, to the scaffold where he was decapitated with very little artistic grace indeed.
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| Triple Portrait of Charles I by van Dyck (1636) |
The Dutch are justly proud of Rembrandt and his
monumental The Night Watch is the prize exhibit at the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam. It is a group portrait of an agreeable, if preening, squad of Dutch
burghers about their civic duties, lit in masterly chiaroscuro.
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| The Night Watch by Rembrandt (1642) |
We jump forward to 18th
century Rococo. The fine English artist Hogarth painted a selfie, adding his
pug dog, appropriately named Trump.
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| The Painter and his Pug by William Hogarth (1745) |
Amid a plethora of great portraits from Reynolds,
Zoffany and Wright of Derby, perhaps the most popular effort was The Blue
Boy by Thomas Gainsborough now gracing the Huntington Library in San
Marino, California.
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| The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough (1770) |
My native Scotland produced masters like Allan
Ramsay and Henry Raeburn and a striking portrait hangs in the Scottish National
Gallery in Edinburgh of The Rev Robert Walker. Attribution to Raeburn is
disputed (Imperialistic French claim it is by their H-P Danleux) but Scotland has it and holds it.
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| The Skating Clergyman by Henry Raeburn (1790) |
Long after he stopped painting sycophantic
portraits of Emperor Napoleon, the French master Ingres produced the excellent Portrait
of M. Bertin, a leading critic and writer, exuding strength and sagacity
despite his ugly crab-like hands.
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| Portrait of Monsieur Bertin by J A-D Ingres (1832) |
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| Portrait of Dr Gachet by Vincent van Gogh (1890) |
Art had moved on during the 19th century and van Gogh’s technique and perspectives were very different from those of Ingres. Dr Gachet was a homeopathic doctor treating Vincent at an asylum. He looks utterly depressed, or was that a reflection of Vincent’s state of mind?
The 20th century saw portraiture
shatter into many schools with those of Picasso and Francis Bacon bemusing us.
Yet the world’s most expensive painting at one time (a snip for $135m) came
from Gustav Klimt.
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| Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt (1907) |
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| Winston Churchill by Graham Sutherland (1954) |
More conventional is the style of Graham Sutherland who was commissioned by Parliament to portray Churchill, who was presented with the painting on his retirement amid much fanfare. Unfortunately, for some reason, Churchill hated the painting passionately and after an interval his wife Clemmie consigned the picture to the bonfire, rather a reprehensible act of vandalism and ingratitude!
Clearly portraits can rouse emotions and the
effort below inspires hope, gratitude and resolution in all loyal
Conservatives. May her robust spirit enthuse us all!
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| Margaret Thatcher in Glory (after Rubens' Assumption) 2013 |
SMD
19.09.19
Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2019
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