Items related to George Romney 1734-1802
Synopsis
The year 2002 marks the bicentenary of the death of George Romney, one of the key figures in British art in the late 18th century. A chief rival of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough - and for much of his career more fashionable than both - he was known both as a portraitist and as a draftsman. His countless studies for literary and mythological pictures, made in private moments but which he never had time to paint, are executed in a bold, spontaneous style that mark him as one of the first Romantics. One hundred years ago Romney's reputation was at its peak. Collectors fought to obtain his portraits of fresh-faced English women, above all his portraits of Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton, who in her youth was Romney's favourite model and with whom he was widely supposed to have had an affair. As the more snobbish and sexist aspects of Edwardian taste became outdated, Romney's art fell spectacularly from favour. His career remains little understood and many of his best-known works are among his least distinguished. He both drew and painted with freedom and with a dramatic expressiveness unmatched in British portraiture of his day. Even later in life, as overwork and disenchantment sapped his enthusiasm, Romney was able to rekindle his energies for special sitters and when working on his occasionally sublime literary and historical paintings. This book provides a fully rounded overview of his career.
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From the Back Cover
"Alex Kidson's excellent catalogue will no doubt set the standard for Romney scholarship for years to come. Its importance can scarcely be overestimated. Kidson has unearthed lost paintings and discovered unfamiliar drawings in little known private collections. He has presented many fresh ideas, corrected numerous errors in attribution, and revealed the present location of works. All of this provides invaluable, updated information."--Yvonne Dixon, Trinity College, Washington, D.C.
About the Author
Alex Kidson is Curator of British Art at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, part of the National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside. His particular area of interest is eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British portraiture. He is the author of a catalogue raisonné of earlier British paintings in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, England, and he has written extensively on contemporary British painting.
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- PublisherNational Portrait Gallery
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 1855145014
- ISBN 13 9781855145016
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
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George Romney 1734-1802. Exhibitions - Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool) , 8 February - 21 April 2002; and National Portrait Gallery (London) , 30 May - 18 August 2002
Published by
National Portrait Gallery Publications, London, 2002
ISBN 10: 1855145014
ISBN 13: 9781855145016
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Literary Cat Books, Machynlleth, Powys, WALES, United Kingdom
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover (contemporary cloth). Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. The year 2002 marked the bi-centenary of the death of George Romney, one of the leading artists in Britain during the last quarter of the 18th century. Romney was born and died in the north-west, although he made his name in London. At the height of his career he was more fashionable than Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough as a society portraitist, but all his life he wanted to paint elevated historical and literary subjects. He lacked the confidence to carry out many of his most ambitious projects, but in the last fifteen years of his working life, under the spell of his favourite model and muse Emma Hart, later the celebrated Lady Hamilton, he produced a sequence of Shakespearean and other fancy subjects which count among the most imaginative and poetic canvases of their time. The association of Romney's name with Lady Hamilton's in the Victorian era contributed to the subsequent eclipse of his reputation as a serious artist. In the 20th century, Romney was gradually re-evaluated as a brilliant, spontaneous draughtsman whose mind teemed with ideas, but who lacked the application to turn his sketches into finished works. Romney's mature drawings were recognised as having been highly influential on a group of younger contemporaries such as John Flaxman and William Blake, and their modernity has appealed to many twentieth-century artists. This wast he first ever exhibition which surveyed the whole range of Romney's art, from his grandest full-length portraits to the tiny thumbnail studies preserved in sketchbooks. It reveals an ambitious and progressive artist who developed and re-invented himself continuously. Light shelfwear to book. Dustjacket slightly scratched and worn. Light wear to spine, cover and corners. ; 24.5 x 28.3 x 3cm; xii, 244 pages. Seller Inventory # LCB60105
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George Romney 1734-1802
Published by
National Portrait Gallery Publications, London, 2001
ISBN 10: 1855145014
ISBN 13: 9781855145016
Used
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First Edition
Seller: Westgate Bookshop, Sleaford, LINCS, United Kingdom
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Larger Format Paperback. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. VERY HEAVY. FOR SALE WITHIN UK ONLY. Large hardback. Fine hardback in Fine d/w. Seller Inventory # 053992
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George Romney 1734-1802
Published by
National Portrait Gallery, 2002
ISBN 10: 1855145014
ISBN 13: 9781855145016
Used
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First Edition
Seller: Paul Hughes - PBFA, Bishop Auckland, United Kingdom
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Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Seller Inventory # ABE-1728553964742
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George Romney 1734-1802
Published by
National Portrait Gallery, 2002
ISBN 10: 1855145014
ISBN 13: 9781855145016
Used
Hardcover
Seller: K Books Ltd ABA ILAB, York, YORKS, United Kingdom
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. ILLUSTRATED (illustrator). xi + 243pp, very well-illustrated in colour, hardcover, maroon brown cloth, silver lettered, dust jacket very good, apart from where two pages (title page and opposite) have stuck together and been separated leaving some marks, the book is in very good condition, National Portrait Gallery, 2002. * includes illustrations of over two hundred of Romney's work, who was the main rival of Gainsborough and Reynolds. Seller Inventory # FURN/3
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GEORGE ROMNEY 1734-1802
Published by
National Portrait Gallery, 2002
ISBN 10: 1855145014
ISBN 13: 9781855145016
Used
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1855145014. with dustjacket, bright clean copy National Portrait Gallery. Seller Inventory # 131704
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Stock Image
George Romney 1734-1802
Published by
National Portrait Gallery, 2002
ISBN 10: 1855145014
ISBN 13: 9781855145016
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Acanthophyllum Books, Holywell, FLINT, United Kingdom
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Condition: V.g. No Jacket. 1st edition. Scarcely used; a hint of tanning to page edges. Weight: 1 Language: English Paper covers, wrap-around flaps. Seller Inventory # 24772
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