Rococo and Neo-Classical Portraiture

If the seventeenth century had been an age of warfare and religious confrontation, the eighteenth century was a calmer Age of Reason and Enlightenment.

This was reflected in two differing styles of painting: Rococo (curvaceous and light-hearted) and Neo-Classicism (more historical, serious and precise), which gave rise to two differing styles of portrait art.

Portrait of Anne, Countess of
Chesterfield (1777), by Thomas
Gainsborough, the eminent
English landscape painter
and Rococo portraitist.

Rococo

Rococo-style portraitists stressed graceful elegance in their subjects, rather than the grandness highlighted during the Baroque period. Examples include: the painting of Tsar Peter the Great by Jean-Marc Nattier, or in the self portrait by Nicolas de Largilliere. Perhaps because it originated as an interior decorative style, Rococo also paid great attention to the texture and details of dress, as well as the financial status of its sitters. In France, this was exemplified by the Rococo artists Francois Boucher and Hyacinthe Rigaud, as well as by the two dozen pictures of Marie-Antoinette painted by the female portraitist Marie-Louise Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun. In England, notable Rococo portrait artists included Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. The former was a staunch admirer of the female Swiss portraitist Angelica Kauffmann. Other notable examples of Rococo portraiture included: Goethe in the Campagna (1787) by the German artist Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tisschbein, and Mozart at the Pianoforte (1789) by the Austrian painter Joseph Lange.

Portrait of Napoleon (1806)
by the neo-classical academic
artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres.

Neo-Classicism

By comparison, the more academic Neo-Classical style of portraiture displayed more gravitas and a keener sense of history. Typically, as with all Classical styles, paintings had messages. Old Masters of this school included: Jacques-Louis David (The Death of Marat, 1793, and Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801); and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (Portrait of Napoleon on the Imperial Throne, 1806, and the Grand Odalisque, 1814). Ingres also borrowed from Rococo - witness his attention to the luscious drapes in his Grand Odalisque (1814), and the costume in his "Portrait of Baroness Betty de Rothschild (1848). The Neo-Classicism of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya was different. Instead of drawing on allegorical or historical narrative, Goya used drama and realism to create an impact. Examples of his classical portraits include: Wellington (1816).

.
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington
(1812-14) by the Spanish Old Master
Francisco Goya.

In America, two famous artists who specialized in figure painting and portraits were the Realist John Copley (1738-1815) - the most distinguished of the Boston and New England portraitists, known for works like Mr and Mrs Ralph Izard (Alice Delancey) (1775) - and Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), a virtuoso painter in the 'grand manner', known for his portraits of the first five US presidents, including: George Washington (1796).

The next article in the history of art covers Nineteenth Century Portraiture.

• For info about portraiture in Ireland, see: Irish Portrait Artists.
• For more about the different types of painting (portraits, landscapes, still-lifes etc) see: Painting Genres.
• For details of landscape and portraiture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide

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