The Art of Drawing: Portraits from the Collection, 1670-1780
Past display archive
19 October 2012 - 19 May 2013
Room 16
Free
Thomas Kerrich
by Thomas Kerrich
1774
NPG 6531
From pencil to pastel, drawing is a diverse medium that offers insight into almost every aspect of late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century artistic practice. Yet despite this diversity, drawing has often been seen as a lesser art. Artists who worked exclusively in watercolour, ink and chalk were limited to becoming associates of the Royal Academy rather than being eligible for full membership. Only the newly-popular medium of pastel was granted a comparable status to painting. This hierarchy has masked the importance of works on paper and their growing popularity amongst sitters, artists and collectors. By the end of this period, drawing had become established as a respectable medium for portraiture.
This display brings together rarely-displayed works on paper from the National Portrait Gallery Collection by some of the best-known seventeenth and eighteenth century artists. Including images by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) and Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), it explores some of the innovations, talents and techniques that made drawing so popular.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Related portraits
- Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton (NPG 2915)
- Henry Purcell (NPG 4994)
- William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford (NPG 1824)
- William Stukeley (NPG 4266)
- Magdalena Jacoba, Lady Whitworth (NPG 5418)
- Jack Sheppard (NPG 4313)
- William Cheselden (NPG 4995)
- Jonathan Richardson (NPG 1693)
- Jonathan Richardson (NPG 3779)
- James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave (NPG 1875)
- John Vanderbank (NPG 3647)
- Alexander Pope (NPG 299)
- George Vertue (NPG 4876)
- Elizabeth (née Gunning), Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon (NPG 4890)
- Laurence Sterne (NPG 2785)
- Benjamin West (NPG 1649)
- Karl Friedrich Abel (NPG 5081)
- Thomas Kerrich (NPG 6531)
- James Jefferys (NPG 4669)
- Allan Ramsay (NPG 1660)
- Johann Jakob Bodmer (NPG 3027)
Related sitters
- Karl Friedrich Abel
- William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford
- Johann Jakob Bodmer
- William Cheselden
- Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
- Elizabeth (née Gunning), Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon
- James Jefferys
- Thomas Kerrich
- Alexander Pope
- Henry Purcell
- Allan Ramsay
- Jonathan Richardson
- John ('Jack') Sheppard
- Laurence Sterne
- William Stukeley
- John Vanderbank
- George Vertue
- James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave
- Benjamin West
- Magdalena Jacoba, Lady Whitworth
Related artists
- Guillaume Birochon
- Louis Carrogis ('Louis de Carmontelle')
- John Closterman
- Francis Cotes
- Henry Fuseli
- Thomas Gainsborough
- William Hoare
- James Jefferys
- Angelica Kauffmann
- Thomas Kerrich
- Sir Peter Lely
- Gustaf Lundberg
- Edward Lutterell (Luttrell)
- Allan Ramsay
- Jonathan Richardson
- Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt
- Sir James Thornhill
- John Vanderbank
- George Vertue