The Art of Flattery: Reynolds and Gainsborough
The Art of Flattery: Reynolds and Gainsborough
Lecturer: Sarah Ciacci
By the latter half of the 1700s, British artists were making their mark and, if they wanted to make money, they focussed on portraiture. The two most successful portrait painters of the day were Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. Both worked in very different styles which reflected different modes of flattery as well as fashionable aspects of 18th century society and culture. The other key ‘portrait’ painter we will look at is George Stubbs, who did not paint portraits of people but animals – he was the horse painter par excellence who showed us, with scientific exactitude, that animals could be a worthy subject for art.
Sarah Ciacci has an MA in History of Art (Late 19th century French Painting and 20th Century Art) from University College London. She has been a Blue Badge Guide for London since 2008, specialising in art, museums and galleries. Since 2008 Sarah has trained Blue Badge Guides in the National Gallery and is an art lecturer for trainee guides in Tate Britain, Tate Modern and for a period the National Portrait Gallery. From 2008-2023 she was Adjunct Faculty at Richmond University teaching the History of British Art, the History of Museums in London and the History of London. She is a gallery educator and runs regular courses and independent lectures on a variety of art historical periods.
Image: Sir Joshua Reynolds RA, 1723–1792, Mrs. Abington as Miss Prue in “Love for Love” by William Congreve, cropped to image, 1771, Oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1977.14.67.