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Description: | Oil on canvas. Hogarth painted this portrait in about 1740-45. The casual dress and pose of the sitter suggests that this is an informal portrait of someone within Hogarth’s circle of literary and artistic friends, rather than a commissioned work. It has been suggested that it relates to Hogarth’s ‘Portrait of Richard James of the Middle Temple’ (c.1744) now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in which the sitter is depicted in a similar pose and attire. However, this theory is disputed.
An X-ray image taken of the portrait indicates that the canvas has been used at least four times by Hogarth, as there are a further three distinct portraits beneath the visible image. Each time the canvas was reused, it was rotated. The four heads revealed by the X-ray therefore meet at the neck, at the centre of the canvas. | Subjects: | unknown man 18th century costume cap male portrait cravat coat man | Temporal: | c.1740-1745; 1740/1745 | Source: | Government Art Collection | Creator: | William Hogarth | Identifier: | http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?... | Go to resource |
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