Period Portraits

Description

A richly coloured, highly decorative and remarkably well preserved early 18th oil on canvas portrait of a dashing gentleman from an artist in the circle of Charles Jervas.

The attractive sitter is pictured half length within a feigned oval cartouche and with his body and head slightly inclined, he gazes at us with the most knowing of expressions.

He sports the traditional costume of aristocratic men of the period, and in his case this is a richly coloured red velvet coat worn with a finely embroidered white cravat. Atop his head is a luxuriantly curled grey wig.

Clearly this portrait was executed by a most accomplished hand, and one who relished the exploration of colour. Of particular note here is the bravura use of lead white to heighten the costume, the well preserved pigments, and also the sitters face. This is the sensitively rendered record of a real character!

Charles Jervas (c. 1675 – 1739)
Jervas was an Irish portrait painter, translator, and art collector.
Born in County Offaly, Ireland around 1675, Jervas studied in London, England as an assistant under Sir Godfrey Kneller between 1694 and 1695.
Painting portraits of the city's intellectuals, among them such personal friends as Jonathan Swift and the poet Alexander Pope (both now in the National Portrait Gallery, London), Charles Jervas became a popular artist often referred to in the works of literary figures of the period.
Jervas gave painting lessons to Pope at his house in Cleveland Court, St James's, which Pope mentions in his poem, To Belinda on the Rape of the Lock, written 1713, published 1717 in 'Poems on Several Occasions'.
With his growing reputation, Jervas succeeded Kneller as Principal Portrait Painter to King George I in 1723, and continued to live in London until his death in 1739, although he made made lengthy visits to Ireland.


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Canvas: 30.5" x 25" / 77cm x 64cm.
Frame: 36" x 31" / 92cm x 79cm.