William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (1737-1805)

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

One of the founders of the 18th-century British landscape school, Thomas Gainsborough was also the creator of the so-called ‘fancy picture’, depicting rustic figures - usually children - posed in rural settings. Born in Suffolk, he studied in London from about 1739 to 1748 under the French painter and engraver Hubert Gravelot and the British painter Francis Hayman at the St Martin’s Lane Academy. Gainsborough returned to Suffolk in 1748, where he worked as a landscape and portrait painter until 1759, before moving to Bath. There he quickly developed into a much sought-after society painter. In 1774, he moved to London where he exhibited his work in his studio. He died in London in 1788.
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Italy. He became a pupil of the German painter and printmaker Joseph Wagner, then based in Venice. In 1764, he was invited to England by Frederick Augusta Barnard, King George III's Librarian. Although best known for copying Old Master drawings in the stipple technique (such as his reproductions of Guercino’s drawings in the Royal Collection), Bartolozzi also engraved plates after contemporary artists (notably Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann). He set up a studio in London, which produced large numbers of ‘furniture prints’ (generally set within a roundel or oval and intended for framing). In 1802 he left England to become Director of the Lisbon Academy in Portugal.

People

William, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne Petty (1737 - 1805)

Places

Subjects

male portrait, 18th century costume, Earl, Marquess

Materials & Techniques

stipple engraving

Artist

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788)
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 - 1815)

Title

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (1737-1805)

Date

1787

Medium

Stipple engraving

Acquisition

Purchased 1992

GAC number

15930