caption

John Vanderbank, Philip Hawkins II

Photo courtesy of Dave Penman (All rights reserved)

Details

Country House
Trewithen
Title(s)
Philip Hawkins II
Medium and support
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Overall height: 172 cm, Overall width: 107 cm
Artist
John Vanderbank (1694-1739)
Catalogue Number
TN33
Inscription
  • Lower right
  • Signed and dated lower right 'Jo Vanderbank/ Fecit/ 1732'

Description

This portrait by John Vanderbank (1694–1739) of Philip Hawkins II (? 1700–1738) is the pair to TN31 depicting his wife Elizabeth Ludlow. The face is sensitively rendered and the artist appears to have taken more care with it than that of the sitter’s wife. While she is shown seated, her husband is standing. The pose of one hand resting on a console table and the other firmly on the hip gives an assertive presence to the sitter. This formula, which was standard in the repertoire of eighteenth-century society portrait painters, was also used by Vanderbank for state portraits (fig. 1) to display best all the elements of state dress.

1736. Oil on canvas, 228.6 × 132.1 cm. Plas Newydd, Anglesey, National Trust (NT 1175942).

Figure 1.
John Vanderbank, Francis North, first Earl of Guilford, 1736. Oil on canvas, 228.6 × 132.1 cm. Plas Newydd, Anglesey, National Trust (NT 1175942).


Digital image courtesy of Plas Newydd, Anglesey, National Trust. (All rights reserved)

by Emily Burns

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