Amid the growing wealth of the Dutch middle classes, the gezin (nuclear family), comprising parents and children bound by feelings of affection, was considered the building block of a strong…
The Flemish artist Jean François van Dael started out painting portraits, decorative and religious subjects, but his career changed direction when he met the flower painter Gerard van Spaendonck in…
This meticulously rendered eighteenth-century view shows the Zuidsingel, a tree-lined canal in Amersfoort, Utrecht.
In seventeenth-century Dutch portraits of women, virtue is often signalled by the presence of a devotional book.
In 1622 Rubens travelled to Paris to undertake a series of tapestry designs for Marie de’ Medici, mother of Louis XII
After Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in late 1631, portraits, both of individuals and of groups, became his financial mainstay. Portraiture represents almost two-thirds of his entire oeuvre.
Portraits enjoyed great popularity in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century, reflecting the growing affluence and civic pride of Dutch society.
As the foremost Flemish painter of the sixteenth century, Antonis Mor spent much time travelling between Antwerp, Augsburg, Rome and Madrid working for Europe’s aristocrac
An Antwerp-trained sculptor who moved to London in 1725, Michael Rysbrack was celebrated for the astonishingly lifelike character of his many portrait busts.
Mediaeval or Renaissance illuminated manuscripts combine hand-written text with decorative borders and pictures. The small images are often enhanced with burnished gold that reflects light and literally illuminates the page….
The French Revolution briefly destroyed the market in France for art and luxury objects. Portraiture, however, flourished as citizens sought to assert their new position in a changed social order….
Mengs was an early exponent of neoclassicism who was drawn to Italy by the renewed interest in Rome’s classical pas
In 1792, John Rous married the beautiful Charlotte Whittaker. Soon after their marriage, William Beechey was commissioned to create two life-size portraits of the couple.
Wright and his wife Ann had six children, two of whom died in infancy.
This painting depicts John Pybus (1727–1789), his wife Martha Pybus (1733–1802), and their four children – Martha holding a ribbon-trimmed hat, Anne savouring a rose’s scent, John Pybus Junior seated…