Sold...portrait of a Lady in White; Studio or Circle of Hoppner

Oil on canvas mounted on board in a magnificent 'Duveen' Louis XV style 19th c. carved and giltwood frame of great quality.

(Frame bears an old plaque incorrectly attributing the portrait to Reynolds).

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 bravura and vivacity, combined with 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.

Although this portrait is by an artist painting in the style of Hoppner (rather than by Hoppner himself) he has captured precisely the bravura technique, the bold brushwork, the painterly delight in using the medium and the sense of harmonious feeling which were characteristic of the artist.

While Reynolds’ advised his pupils to rely upon academic study, preparation and drawing, Hoppner preferred to begin working immediately with oils on the canvas. It was precisely this free and fluid approach that allowed Hoppner to capture character, emotion and presence.

SIZE: 56.5 x 46 inches inc. frame

43 x 35 inches canvas size

PROVENANCE: From the London apartment of Laurence Kane, the noted New York decorator.