The Exhibition Age 1760–1815

Richard Wilson, On Hounslow Heath  ?exhibited 1770

The view shows the watermeadows beside the River Crane. This area of Hounslow Heath was not known for its beauty or cultural significance. Instead, the attraction of this picture lies in the beauty of the sky and the reflections in the water. In this it is an example of a new type of landscape view, designed to bring a vision of a rural idyll into the city dweller's home. The picture was commissioned by Tom Davies, who was a Bloomsbury bookseller, and one of a growing number of middle-class urban patrons of English landscape subjects.

Gallery label, September 2004

Richard Westall, The Reconciliation of Helen and Paris after his Defeat by Menelaus  exhibited 1805

In Greek legend, the beautiful Helen was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Her affair with the Trojan prince, Paris, led to the Trojan War.Westall painted this picture for Thomas Hope, a fabulously wealthy collector of the antique and of selected contemporary art. Hope’s taste ran from strict neo-classicism to Romantic exoticism. The rooms of his London house were furnished and decorated to reflect various regions of the ancient world – Egypt and India as well as Greece and Rome. Westall modelled the figure of Helen on a Greek statue in Hope’s collection.

Gallery label, May 2007

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Garreteer’s Petition  exhibited 1809

Turner rarely painted explicitly figurative works, but was inspired to do so in this case by rivalry with David Wilkie, whose genre subjects had taken the London art world by storm in 1805. The scene shows a young poet struggling for inspiration late at night in his attic room. On the wall is an image of Mount Parnassus, home of the Greek Muses, indicating his lofty ambitions. Though the point of the image seems to be satirical, the picture was exhibited at a time when Turner was producing his own verses, and he may well have sympathised with the poet’s plight.

Gallery label, August 2004

Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas  exhibited 1766

This picture shows the meeting of the Trojan prince Aeneas and the Carthaginian queen Dido, from Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid. Aeneas was shipwrecked near Carthage after the sack of Troy. The goddess Venus made Dido fall in love with him and helped him to hide in her citadel. He watches Dido welcome his fellow Trojans and when she asks to see their ‘king’ the mist clears and Aeneas reveals his identity. Dance-Holland made this picture while he was in Rome and sent it to London to be exhibited as a way to advertise his imminent return to Britain.

Gallery label, February 2016

John Opie, The School Mistress  1784

This was the painting that established Opie’s reputation in London. It created a sensation when it was shown at the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition in 1784 as ‘The School’. Opie’s handling of paint evoked the most highly-admired Old Masters, like Rembrandt and Caravaggio. What contemporary viewers found remarkable was the combination of realism and dramatic light and shade. This was wholly original, particularly in the context of such an ordinary scene. The school mistress is modelled on Opie’s own mother.

Gallery label, October 2019

Henry Walton, A Girl Buying a Ballad  exhibited 1778

The distant war for American independence (1775–1782) had an immense and divisive effect on London opinion, which was often very sympathetic to the American cause. There were, of course, many satirical prints, both for and against the Americans.

The war also occasionally had an indirect presence in paintings of contemporary life. The prints displayed by the ballad seller in Walton’s painting include a portrait of General Sir William Howe, commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. He had complained about government interference in the war and had resigned his commission.

Gallery label, September 2004

Robert Ladbrooke, Wood Scene  exhibited 1806

Thomas Gainsborough, Giovanna Baccelli  exhibited 1782

This portrait shows the famous Italian dancer Giovanna Zanerini, known on the stage as Baccelli, at the height of her career. Her elaborate costume seems to be adapted from the ballet Les Amants Surpris in which she had recently taken London by storm. Baccelli was the mistress of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset who commissioned the painting. The rapid brushwork, translucent paint and shimmering light effects are typical of Gainsborough’s style at this time. When the portrait was first exhibited, it was chiefly praised as an excellent likeness; ‘as the Original, light airy and elegant’.

Gallery label, February 2016

Charles Reuben Ryley, Oscar Bringing Back Annir’s Daughter  1785

The strength of Scottish identity lay not only in the figure of the Highlander, but also in a sense of Scotland’s ancient legendary past, enshrined in the potent myth of Ossian.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the poet James Macpherson had produced what he claimed was a faithful translation of an epic of primeval Scotland by an ancient Celtic bard named Ossian. In fact Macpherson had heavily edited fragments of Gaelic poems and added much of his own writing. His poems nevertheless provided sentimental and dramatic scenes for many late-eighteenth-century artists including English painters like Charles Ryley.

Gallery label, July 2004

Francesco Zuccarelli, A Landscape with the Story of Cadmus Killing the Dragon  exhibited 1765

This painting illustrates the story of Cadmus, founder of the ancient city of Thebes, as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Cadmus is slaying the dragon that has killed his companions. They have died trying to collect spring water from the dragon’s cave, not knowing that it is sacred to the god Mars. Cadmus is protected by a lion-skin and armed with a javelin. The Italian painter Zuccarelli left Venice for London in 1752, his mythological landscapes popular with British patrons. In 1768 he was commissioned to produce works for George III, and was a founding member of The Royal Academy.

Gallery label, February 2016

Benjamin West, Cleombrotus Ordered into Banishment by Leonidas II, King of Sparta  1768

Benjamin West showed this painting at the second exhibition of the newly formed Royal Academy. After several years in Italy, West had established himself in London as the leading painter of subjects from classical history. His example, and the Academy’s teaching, encouraged numerous young British artists to study in Italy.

His subject is an incident from ancient Greek history. Leonidas, king of Sparta, was usurped by his son-in-law, Cleombrutus. When Leonidas returns looking for revenge, his daughter pleads for her husband’s life. Leonidas is moved by her tears, and commutes Cleombrutus’s death sentence to banishment.

Gallery label, September 2004

Sir David Wilkie, The Blind Fiddler  1806

In this early work by Scottish-born David Wilkie an itinerant fiddler is playing for a humble country family. Wilkie focuses on the listeners’ different expressions. Only two people seem to respond to the music: the baby and the boy on the right, who is imitating the fiddler by playing the bellows. When this picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy some critics thought the bust on the shelf represented a dissenting minister, and concluded that the family were nonconformists. The power of music to stir the passions of those supposedly suspicious of pleasure was thought to add to the painting’s subtlety.

Gallery label, February 2016

Gilbert Stuart, Benjamin West, P.R.A.  ?exhibited 1781

The American-born painter Benjamin West was one of the most successful artists of his generation. He was one of King George III’s favourite artists, which gave him privileges and wealth that made him the envy of his contemporaries. This polished portrait suggests an affluent and genteel personality.

West’s studio in London was a gathering place for Americans studying art in Europe. Many of these returned home to pursue careers in their newly independent homeland. This portrait is by one of West’s most successful American students, Gilbert Stuart.

Gallery label, August 2004

George Romney, A Lady in a Brown Dress: ‘The Parson’s Daughter’  c.1785

This portrait was originally exhibited as 'A Lady in a Brown Dress' but became known as 'The Parson's Daughter' in the later nineteenth century, when there was a fashion for giving such imaginative titles to portraits of anonymous sitters. The picture is considered to be an actual portrait rather than a 'fancy-piece', although the identity of the sitter is not known. A pencil sketch of the same subject is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.Romney was one of the most successful fashionable portrait painters of his time and a close rival of Reynolds and Gainsborough. His female portraits were particularly admired for their embodiment of the womanly virtues of chastity, simplicity and grace.

Gallery label, September 2004

John Hoppner, A Gale of Wind  c.1794

Hoppner originally intended to become a landscape painter. However, this seascape, shown at Royal Academy in 1795, is the only work other than portraits he is known to have exhibited.

Attention is focused on the large figures in the foreground as they battle against the raging wind and the overwhelming forces of nature. The scene is set just off St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight, known for its treacherous waters.

Gallery label, September 2004

James Northcote, A Young Lady Playing the Harp  ?exhibited 1814

A Young Lady Playing the Harp ?exhibited 1814 is an oil painting by the English artist and author James Northcote. It depicts a young harpist wearing a white dress tied with a long green sash, with a string of red beads around her neck. The harpist gazes forward, both hands raised to pluck the strings. She is seated against a rural backdrop dominated by a large, dark tree on the right, which frames her compositionally. The backdrop on the left, seen through the strings of the harp, features a twilit sky over hills and a lake.

John Hoppner, Miss Harriet Cholmondeley  exhibited 1804

Philip James De Loutherbourg, A Distant Hail-Storm Coming On, and the March of Soldiers with their Baggage  1799

Loutherbourg’s picture is filled with foreboding. It was painted shortly after the French revolution and at the beginning of the wars with revolutionary France and its allies. The landscape is stormy and overcast, and peopled by soldiers. This reflects how the nation was becoming militarised and placed on a war footing, with military exercises and recruitment and conscription reaching even remote areas.

Gallery label, May 2007

George Stubbs, Mares and Foals in a River Landscape  c.1763–8

This painting seems to have been used as an ‘overdoor’, hung with two other pictures by Stubbs above the doors in the dining room of George Brodrick, 3rd Viscount Midleton, MP (1730–65). Reflecting the ornamental use to which this painting was to be put, it seems that Stubbs, the premier animal painter of his day, did not set out to be especially original. The figures of the horses are the same as those appearing in another painting, a commission for Lord Rockingham representing specific horses owned by him, although the colour of one has been changed from brown to grey.

Gallery label, February 2016

Sir David Wilkie, The Bag-Piper  1813, exhibited 1813

Wilkie exhibited this intimate portrait in 1813, when his reputation as a painter of character was already well-established. As a Scottish artist, Wilkie was keen to elevate the status of his national school. Here, however, he seems to draw on stereotypes, showing his character with a red nose and cheeks, auburn hair and thick eyebrows. These elements evoke the wildness associated with the Scots by many 19th-century English viewers. While Wilkie’s picture may appear to be taken from life, it also answered a demand for romanticised images of Scotland.

Gallery label, March 2011

Henry Fuseli, Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma  exhibited 1783

Conventionally, history paintings were based on a literary or historical source familiar to educated viewers. The artist’s role was to select from the story a crucially significant moment that would convey a sense of nobility and moral certainty.

The success of this strategy of course depended on the viewer knowing the story, and so knowing what would happen next. Fuseli, however, admitted that he invented the saga of Percival and Belisane shown here. His paintings tended to emphasis spectacle and sensation rather then the noble themes and moral lessons which Reynolds’s view of the ‘great style’ demanded.

Gallery label, September 2004

Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of a Lady  c.1775

The unknown woman in this portrait is seated in classical robes by a statue of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. The book upon the table and the writing materials in her hand suggest that she is a writer. Angelica Kauffmann’s interest in classical portraiture and history painting was nurtured during her time in Italy during the 1760s. Kauffmann, who was Swiss by birth, settled in England in 1766, remaining there until 1781, when she departed once more for Italy. In England Kauffmann specialised in decorative history painting and small scale portraits of female subjects, such as the one shown here.

Gallery label, February 2016

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Philadelphia Hannah, 1st Viscountess Cremorne  exhibited 1789

Lawrence was largely self-taught. He painted this portrait, his first full-length, at the age of nineteen. It put him on the map when the sitter introduced him to her friend, Queen Charlotte, who then commissioned her own portrait. Lawrence turned this into a virtuoso performance. He became the leading British portrait painter, and President of the Royal Academy. His fluent, expressive style and powerful characterisation were admired throughout Europe.The 1st Viscountess Cremorne was a granddaughter of William Penn, founder of Philadelphia. The wild background landscape must refer to Ireland, her husband’s home, if not to the American wilderness.

Gallery label, May 2007

Henry Monro, The Disgrace of Wolsey  exhibited 1814

Thomas Wolsey (1473–1530) was an English archbishop, statesman and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a trusted advisor to King Henry VIII, who made him Lord Chancellor. In 1529, having failed to secure an annulment of Henry VIII’s first marriage, Wolsey was removed from government and arrested for treason. This painting won Monro a prize at the British Institution in 1813. The Institution was keen to promote historical painting by British artists. Monro died the following year, aged only 22.

Gallery label, July 2019

Richard Cosway, Portrait of a Gentleman, his Wife and Sister, in the Character of Fortitude introducing Hope as the Companion to Distress (‘The Witts Family Group’)  c.1775

Although principally a portrait miniaturist (see cabinet 2: The Portrait Miniature in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries), Richard Cosway also produced some larger-scale works in oil. This allegorical portrait was painted following the death of a young London linen draper, Broome Witts, in 1769. Witts is shown here in the role of Fortitude, introducing his sister Sarah in the guise of Hope (left) to his wife Elizabeth, depicted as Distress. This memorial image was presumably commissioned by one or both of these ladies.

Gallery label, August 2004

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers  1769

This portrait depicts two young aristocrats. Dressed in quasi-historical clothing invented by the artist, they are mimicking a medieval or Renaissance hunt; the dead game they leave in their trail underlining their noble blood and aristocratic right to hunt. This painting celebrates their friendship by linking it to an imaginary chivalric past, when young lords pursued ‘manly’ activities together against a backdrop of ancient forest. The subjects are shown in perfect harmony – at one with each other and joint masters over nature.

Gallery label, February 2016

Gilbert Stuart, William Woollett the Engraver  exhibited 1783

William Woollett was one of the most celebrated engravers of his day. He is shown here about to start work on his engraving of Benjamin West’s painting The Death of General Wolfe. Part of the picture can be seen in the background on the left. Although not a true representation of how an engraver would work, this portrait does show Woollett holding the copper plate on which the painting was to be reproduced. In his right hand is a pointed steel burin, or graver. It was primarily through the distribution of engravings that the image of Wolfe achieved iconic status.

Gallery label, February 2016

George Stubbs, Horse Devoured by a Lion  ?exhibited 1763

This is one of at least 17 works Stubbs made of a lion stalking and attacking a horse. Here he depicts the moment the lion sinks its teeth into the terrified horse, set against the backdrop of Creswell Crags in the Peak District. The painting showcases Stubbs’s anatomical precision, informed by his studies of caged lions at the Tower of London. It also highlights his efforts to raise the status of animal painting by showing its emotional and narrative power. By depicting the dramatic climax of the encounter, Stubbs evokes the awe and terror felt when faced with untamed nature.

Gallery label, December 2020

Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of a Man (Self-portrait?)  c.1782–9

At the time he painted this self-portrait, the American artist Gilbert Stuart was based in London and was a rising star in the art world.

This slickly executed image, with its crisp design and clear, subtle colours, advertises the painter’s technical sophistication. He took these skills back to America in 1793, where he established himself as a prolific and successful portrait painter. His most famous portrait is the one of Washington reproduced on the American dollar bill.

Gallery label, August 2004

George Stubbs, Horse Frightened by a Lion  ?exhibited 1763

The dramatic theme of a lion attacking a horse preoccupied Stubbs for over thirty years. This painting comes from a series of four episodes in a terrifying attack on a passive horse. This is the first stage, as the horse scents the lion emerging from its cave and rises up in fright. The setting for this violent encounter is the harsh, rocky landscape of Creswell Crags in the Peak District. The area was then an inaccessible, wild region that fascinated Stubbs. The scenery makes a suitably romantic background for the ‘sublime’ drama of the scene.

Gallery label, February 2016