Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence

The period between 1730-1830 saw the rise of an English school of art, much later than the other schools on the European continent. English portrait painters played a crucial part in this evolution by deploying the art of portraiture in infinite variations, in search of a veracity and an intimacy wh...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Frédéric Ogée
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de Bourgogne 2024-06-01
Series:Interfaces
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/9022
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850187143110983680
author Frédéric Ogée
author_facet Frédéric Ogée
author_sort Frédéric Ogée
collection DOAJ
description The period between 1730-1830 saw the rise of an English school of art, much later than the other schools on the European continent. English portrait painters played a crucial part in this evolution by deploying the art of portraiture in infinite variations, in search of a veracity and an intimacy whose contours and peculiarities they tirelessly strove to capture and render. Indeed, they radically transformed their chosen pictorial genre by transcribing onto canvas the new conceptions and perceptions of the individual which had emerged in the Age of Enlightenment. Sensitive to the new universalist values associated with the notions of identity, individuality and sociability, the British portraitists set out to represent the variety and diversity of human beings, moving away from ancient types and models to focus on the particular, singular, circumstantial personalities of the models. In this essay I try to present the narrative of this remarkable blossoming, focussing on the works of a series of exceptional artists—William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence—whose works provide us with a remarkable visual chronicle of the evolutions of men, women and children in this rich moment in European history.
format Article
id doaj-art-f34ac2c61e6047349e8268a00a33d8e4
institution OA Journals
issn 2647-6754
language English
publishDate 2024-06-01
publisher Université de Bourgogne
record_format Article
series Interfaces
spelling doaj-art-f34ac2c61e6047349e8268a00a33d8e42025-08-20T02:16:10ZengUniversité de BourgogneInterfaces2647-67542024-06-015110.4000/122drSociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas LawrenceFrédéric OgéeThe period between 1730-1830 saw the rise of an English school of art, much later than the other schools on the European continent. English portrait painters played a crucial part in this evolution by deploying the art of portraiture in infinite variations, in search of a veracity and an intimacy whose contours and peculiarities they tirelessly strove to capture and render. Indeed, they radically transformed their chosen pictorial genre by transcribing onto canvas the new conceptions and perceptions of the individual which had emerged in the Age of Enlightenment. Sensitive to the new universalist values associated with the notions of identity, individuality and sociability, the British portraitists set out to represent the variety and diversity of human beings, moving away from ancient types and models to focus on the particular, singular, circumstantial personalities of the models. In this essay I try to present the narrative of this remarkable blossoming, focussing on the works of a series of exceptional artists—William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence—whose works provide us with a remarkable visual chronicle of the evolutions of men, women and children in this rich moment in European history.https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/9022paintingportraitureindividualityEnlightenmentsociabilityGreat Britain
spellingShingle Frédéric Ogée
Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence
Interfaces
painting
portraiture
individuality
Enlightenment
sociability
Great Britain
title Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence
title_full Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence
title_fullStr Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence
title_full_unstemmed Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence
title_short Sociability and portraiture from William Hogarth to Thomas Lawrence
title_sort sociability and portraiture from william hogarth to thomas lawrence
topic painting
portraiture
individuality
Enlightenment
sociability
Great Britain
url https://journals.openedition.org/interfaces/9022
work_keys_str_mv AT fredericogee sociabilityandportraiturefromwilliamhogarthtothomaslawrence