Sold....triple Portrait of Sisters C. 1795/1805; Circle of Hoppner

Oil on canvas in ebonised and gilded frame.

A beautiful portrait of three sisters with their pet dog, its puppy and a doll. Seated on a fashionable chaise longue with a garden visible in the background, the older sister puts her arm protectively around her youngest sibling whilst the other girl turns her head to look directly at us...even the doll seems to look towards us! Meanwhile the dog looks at its puppy which rests happily, and rather plumply, on the middle sister's lap.

A peaceful and happy scene from the Late Georgian period, even though the painting is a large one the artist captures a sense of intimacy.

With Gainsborough and Reynolds, JOHN HOPPNER (1758 - 1810) was one of the leading portrait painters in late eighteenth-century Britain. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1775, where he won a Gold Medal in 1782. His rapid rise was accompanied by rumours (never denied by Hoppner) that he was the illegitimate son of the future King George III, and it is true that in his education and early career Hoppner benefited from a considerable degree of royal sponsorship. He was brought up as a child of the Chapel Royal, tutored in the Royal Library where King George paid great attention to his progress, and finally presented him with an allowance in order that he might establish himself as a painter.

By the late 1780s Hoppner was a regular contributor to the Royal Academy exhibitions and quickly established himself as a fashionable portrait painter. In 1789 he succeeded Reynolds in his appointment as painter to the Prince of Wales in 1789, many of whose circle he painted.

Though his early works display a great debt to Reynolds, Hoppner soon developed an individual style that is distinguished by vivacity and a strong feeling of character. These works show a deliberate move away from the classicism of Reynolds, towards a more emotionally engaging and naturalistic image. Hoppner’s success is evident by the fact that he became the only serious rival to Lawrence, and with him was responsible for painting the finest Romantic portraits of the Regency period.

SIZE: 47.5 x 63.5 inches inc. frame.

PROVENANCE: English Private Collection.

VERSO: Two old labels for paintng restorers and framers in London and Bury St. Edmunds.