The Exhibition Age 1760–1815

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

Sir Joshua Reynolds, Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen  1773

Joshua Reynolds paints the aristocratic Montgomery sisters, Barbara, Elizabeth and Anne, decorating a classical sculpture with flowers. Their poses associate them with the mythological Graces, personifying charm, grace and beauty. This emphasises the sisters’ beauty and elegance and may also playfully allude to their fame as ‘The Irish Graces’. By including the statue of Hymen, the Greek god of marriage and fertility, Reynolds also celebrates their desirability for marriage. Reynolds exhibited this painting in 1774. It exemplifies his ‘grand style’ of portraiture, which drew inspiration from classical and Renaissance art, and favoured idealised elements rather than current or specific fashions. The painting prompted one art critic to praise Reynolds’ ‘great Richness of Imagination’.

Gallery label, February 2024

Sir David Wilkie, The Village Holiday  1809–11

David Wilkie was famed for his paintings of everyday life. Here, Wilkie shows people socialising and drinking at the local pub. One man is torn between staying to drink with his friends or going home with his family. This dilemma updates the classical theme of choosing between vice and virtue – the man slumped in the corner on the right acts as a stark warning. His inclusion of this reference was likely an attempt to claim a higher status for such ‘lowly’ scenes. The painting was the centrepiece of his 1812 solo exhibition. It was accompanied by lines from a popular ‘temperance’ poem (advocating sobriety), further reinforcing the painting’s moral message.

Gallery label, February 2024

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

Thomas Stothard, Nymphs Discover the Narcissus  exhibited 1793

Thomas Stothard depicts a scene here from the Roman poet Ovid’s mythological narrative, Metamorphoses. The boy Narcissus, obsessed with his own reflection in the water, wastes away and turns into a flower. Here a group of nymphs discover the flower growing on the riverbank. The painting was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793. Stothard’s steadiest form of income was book illustration, but his reputation as a history painter was beginning to grow in the 1790s. It was on this basis that he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1794.

Gallery label, October 2023

Henry Robert Morland, A Laundry Maid Ironing  c.1765–82

This painting of a maid ironing is typical for Morland, who specialised in such ‘fancy pictures’ - subjects drawn from everyday life but with imaginative elements. He repeatedly painted and exhibited idealised pictures of young women in working-class roles, as ballad singers, oyster sellers and laundry maids. Here, the woman is shown passively gazing down, serene as she works, her tools and appearance pristine. There is little indication of her individuality, or of the real hardship of such domestic labour. Instead, she represents a contrived ‘type’, made attractive for contemporary middle and upper-class viewers and saleable for the print market.

Gallery label, June 2022

Henry Walton, A Girl Buying a Ballad  exhibited 1778

This painting shows a fashionable young woman approaching an old ballad-seller on the street, whose printed wares are pinned up behind him. Henry Walton exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1778. He likely hoped this imaginative image of city life would appeal to exhibition-goers. But he may also have intended a political reading too. The two portrait prints on the right are recognisable as General William Howe and his brother, Admiral Richard Howe. Their doubts about Britain’s war with Revolutionary America had recently led them to resign from military command. This was highly topical as the war was hugely controversial in Britain.

Gallery label, February 2024

Thomas Whitcombe, The Battle of Camperdown  1798

This painting shows the naval battle that took place on 11 October 1797 near Camperduin, off the coast of North-Holland in the Netherlands. Whitcombe depicts the dramatic moments shortly after the British ship Venerable fired at its Dutch opponent Vrijheid. Just behind Venerable, to the right, is the Dutch ship Alkmaar in flames. The battle resulted in a resounding victory for the British fleet midway through the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802). Thomas Whitcombe specialised in maritime pictures, including of naval battles. Images like this, celebrating Britain’s naval power and victories, helped create a sense of national identity.

Gallery label, October 2023

Sir Henry Raeburn, Mrs H.W. Lauzun  ?1796

This painting depicts Anne Neale Lauzun (1776–1861), née Tucker. Born in Bermuda, her family were part of the British colonial administration. She spent her youth in Bermuda before moving to Edinburgh in 1792. Henry Raeburn painted this portrait in Edinburgh, possibly to commemorate Tucker’s marriage to Lieutenant Henry William Lauzun in 1796. The strong central light source and loose brushwork in this painting, reflect Raeburn’s cultivation of his own unique style as his career progressed.

Gallery label, October 2023

Sir David Wilkie, The Blind Fiddler  1806

David Wilkie suggests the emotional power of music here. He expresses the different reactions to the blind fiddler’s music – one young boy even pretends to play the fire bellows. This was only the second painting Wilkie exhibited publicly and it confirmed his reputation as a rising new star. A large crowd gathered around the picture when it was displayed at the Royal Academy. Exhibition-goers admired his observational skills, his characterisation, and his sympathetic view of everyday domestic life. It was hung next to JMW Turner’s A Country Blacksmith, which had a similarly subject and muted colours. Many contemporaries believed Turner was sparring with the younger artist.

Gallery label, February 2024

Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Age of Innocence  ?1788

The identity of Joshua Reynolds’s young model is uncertain. It is perhaps Reynold’s great-niece Theophila Gwatkin, a Miss Anne Fletcher, or a Lady Anne Spencer (the youngest daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough). This painting is an example of a ‘fancy’ picture, a type of 18th century painting showing figures, particularly children, playing out various roles. It was painted over one of Reynolds’s existing paintings, titled A Strawberry Girl. He altered all elements of the girl’s figure except for her hands. The Age of Innocence was one of Reynolds’s most popular images – more than 323 full-scale copies were made of it between 1856 and 1893.

Gallery label, October 2023

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

David Wilkie had already made his name in the London art world when he painted this small picture. It shows a bagpiper seemingly lost in thought, his fingers poised to play. One early biographer claimed this subject had been in Wilkie’s mind since boyhood and includes the old kirk (church) of his hometown, Cults, in the distance. While this is debatable, the explicitly Scottish subject is unusual in Wilkie’s work at this time. He exhibited this painting at the British Institution in 1813. While this may reflect his hope to raise the status of Scottish art, The Bag-Piper also appealed to a romanticised image of Scotland.

Gallery label, February 2024

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

The scene shows a young poet struggling for inspiration late at night in his garret, a cramped attic room. On the wall is an image of Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of the Greek Muses, indicating his high ambitions. Though the point of the image seems to be satirical, the picture was exhibited at a time when Turner was writing poetry himself so likely sympathised with the poet’s predicament. Turner rarely painted explicitly figurative works but may have been inspired to do so due to his rivalry with David Wilkie whose genre subjects were extremely popular in London’s exhibitions.

Gallery label, February 2024

John Opie, Portrait of a Lady in the Character of Cressida  exhibited 1800

We do not know the identity of this woman, but she is probably a celebrity or actress who contemporary viewers would have recognised. Opie was working at a time when fame was becoming an increasingly important part of artistic success. This painting appeared at the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition in 1800. Artists jostled to grab public attention, painting more flamboyant and dramatic pictures. Opie depicts his sitter as the heroine of Shakespeare’s tragedy Troilus and Cressida.

Gallery label, October 2019

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

George Romney was one of London’s most fashionable portraitists. He was particularly admired for the charm and simplicity of his female portraits. He chose not to exhibit his works publicly after 1772, instead relying on word of mouth for private commissions. Romney became known for his virtuoso ‘performances’ at sittings, quickly painting the sitters’ likeness directly onto the canvas. This painting demonstrates the artist’s loose, expressive brushwork. We do not know the identity of the sitter, but later, in the second half of the 19th century the work became widely known as ‘The Parson’s Daughter’.

Gallery label, February 2024

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.

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

John Hoppner, A Gale of Wind  c.1794

John Hoppner was one of the leading portraitists of his day. When he exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1794, it would have stood out to exhibition-goers as a highly unusual subject for the artist. Indeed, this is the only work Hoppner is known to have exhibited that wasn’t a portrait. We think the stormy seascape is set just off St Catherine’s Point in the Isle of Wight, an area known for its dangerous waters. The painting gave Hoppner an opportunity to show off his expressive brushwork and his ability to convey drama and narrative. Capturing a sense of the artistic competition of the time, one critic remarked: ‘The present aggression is incontestably bold, and well executed, and should be rewarded with a booty of reputation.’

Gallery label, February 2024

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

Waking from an enchanted sleep, Percival is shown raising his sword to strike the wizard Urma. Meanwhile, his lover, Belisane, clings to his side. Although Henry Fuseli claimed this story was from the ‘Provencal Tales of Kyot’, it was actually his own invention. At first glance, this painting seems to depict the kind of heroic scene associated with grand manner painting. However, it disregards the noble themes and moral lessons such painting usually demanded. Instead, Fuseli’s strange and supernatural imagery emphasises emotional drama and spectacle. This played into Fuseli’s persona as a wild eccentric, equally admired and reviled by contemporaries.

Gallery label, February 2024

John Hoppner, Miss Harriet Cholmondeley  exhibited 1804

Richard Wilson, Llyn-y-Cau, Cader Idris  ?exhibited 1774

Richard Wilson paints Llyn Cau, a lake near the summit of Cadair Idris in North Wales. He heightened the precipice and included imagined landscape features to create a balanced, more ordered composition. The tiny people underscore the monumental scale of the scenery. Wilson suggests we are looking at an untouched paradise, ideal for contemplating nature. The figure with a telescope may reflect the fashionable enthusiasm for such remote scenery. The Welsh countryside particularly appealed to Wilson’s contemporaries because of the new taste for sublime awe-inspiring landscapes and the growing interest in Welsh history and culture.

Gallery label, February 2024

George Morland, Outside an Inn, Winter  c.1795

George Morland was known for painting rustic country life. Here, he depicts a man departing from an inn, watched by a child from the open doorway. The traveller’s thick coat and shiny top hat suggests his affluence, in contrast with the humble inn keeper, who keeps a pig for food. The scene’s stark surroundings underscore the hardship of rural life. However, Morland may have been appealing to the popular market for simple, picturesque country scenes. At this time Morland began working on a smaller scale and often recycled compositions in order to increase his output. This painting is similar to an earlier print, and doorway exchanges regularly feature in Morland’s work.

Gallery label, February 2024

Sir Henry Raeburn, Pringle Fraser  c.1804

Pringle Fraser was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1787. Here, he is around 17 years old. The dramatic lighting focusses attention on his face, illuminated against the dark, restrained background. This striking light effect and the fluid handling of paint suggests Henry Raeburn’s growing artistic confidence. By this time, Raeburn was celebrated as one of Scotland’s greatest portraitists. As an adult, Fraser travelled to India and joined the East India Company’s army, eventually becoming a Captain in the 7th Regiment in the Madras Native Infantry.

Gallery label, October 2023

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

As the war against France continued during the 1790s, Philip James de Loutherbourg increasingly turned his attention to military and naval subjects. Rather than depicting a grand battle, here he emphasises the domestic impact of war. British soldiers march through the countryside, leaving tearful families behind. The dark clouds and stormy weather only increase the sombre, foreboding mood. When this painting was exhibited in 1799, one reviewer commented on its appeal to the viewer’s emotions, praising the ‘variety of beauties which cannot be easily described, but are felt by the connoisseur on the first view.’

Gallery label, February 2024

Johan Zoffany, The Bradshaw Family  exhibited 1769

Small-scale group portraits like this, known as ‘conversation pieces’, projected an idealised vision of family life. This picture employs a pyramidal arrangement of the figures to express the structure of the family. Thomas Bradshaw (1733–74), a senior civil servant and politician, is shown at the apex of the pyramid. His family is arranged below him. The two women are Bradshaw’s wife, Elizabeth on the right, and, on the left, probably his sister. The two oldest sons are shown at the far left and right of the group. Their position in the composition serves to associate them both with the sheltered space of the family unit, and the outside world.

Gallery label, February 2016

John Hoppner, Mrs Williams  c.1790

Little is known about the woman in this painting. She is thought to have been the wife of a Captain Williams. John Hoppner portrays her in her youth, possibly before her marriage. Hoppner was a skilled colourist, demonstrated in Mrs William’s rosy cheeks and the blue trimmings of her bonnet and blouse. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780. While he was initially interested in landscape painting, Hoppner soon turned to portraiture which provided a steadier source of income. He achieved considerable success, receiving commissions from numerous aristocrats and members of the royal family.

Gallery label, October 2023

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

Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of a Lady  c.1775

Angelica Kauffman was hugely successful – by the 1770s, her work was so popular that one contemporary quipped, ‘the whole World is Angelica-mad’. In portraits like this, Kauffman helped establish and promote an image of feminine creativity and intellect. While we do not know the sitter’s identity, the writing instruments she holds emphasise her learning, perhaps even signalling literary ambitions. The book and statue of Minerva (the Roman goddess of wisdom) on the table, further underline this. Dressed in classicising robes, she looks confidently out at the viewer. Such images also reflect the strong network of women – patrons, fellow artists, intellectuals, and professionals – that Kauffman relied upon throughout her career.

Gallery label, February 2024

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

Lady Cremorne is shown standing confidently, gazing directly out at the viewer. This seems apt given her high social standing: she was lady-in-waiting to Queen Charlotte and her grandfather was William Penn, who established the British colonial settlement in Pennsylvania, America. Thomas Lawrence was only 19 when he painted this imposing portrait, and it was his first full-length painting. He included it among his exhibits at the Royal Academy in 1789, where it caught the press’s attention. Lawrence was heralded as the successor to the aging Joshua Reynolds. Soon after this, Lawrence painted Queen Charlotte, a prestigious commission perhaps suggested by Lady Cremorne herself.

Gallery label, February 2024

Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Henry Bate-Dudley, Bart.  c.1780

The Reverend Henry Bate-Dudley was one of London’s most notorious newspaper editors. He first rose to fame through his journalistic writing in the Morning Post, before establishing the best-selling paper, the Morning Herald in 1780, which was renowned for its social gossip and political attacks. Thomas Gainsborough was close friends with Bate-Dudley. Here, Gainsborough conveys Bate-Dudley’s self-assurance and perhaps his loyalty through including his adoring dog. For Gainsborough, their friendship guaranteed he was championed in the press. Such public support was invaluable in the competitive art world. That Bate-Dudley divided public opinion, however, is apparent in one critic’s pun about this portrait, remarking that ‘the man wanted execution’.

Gallery label, February 2024