Portrait of a Gentleman

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Hospitality, Lancaster House

Andrea Soldi, Italian portrait and history painter, was born in Florence. He travelled in the Middle East before settling in London in c.1738, where he enjoyed a flourishing business as a portrait painter. His best portraits are of other foreign-born artists who had settled in England, including the sculptors Roubiliac (Dulwich Art Gallery) and Rysbrack (Yale). Soldi also painted a few distinguished family groups, or ‘conversation pieces’. Eight of his portraits are at Newburgh Priory, North Yorkshire, and his self portrait of 1743 is at York City Art Gallery. Soldi exhibited at the Society of Artists and at the Free Society of Artists. His life-style was too extravagant to support his career and he died in London, in poverty.

People

unknown man

Places

Subjects

book, male portrait, tree, man, 18th century costume, garden, plinth (represented)

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Andrea Soldi (c.1703 - 1771)

Title

Portrait of a Gentleman

Date

1748

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 50.50 cm, width: 39.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Sotheby's, 8 March 1989

Inscription

bl: An. Soldi pinxit / Ao 1748

Provenance

Sold through Sotheby's, London, 'British Paintings 1500-1850' sale, on 5 March 1989 (Lot 33); from which sale purchased by the Government Art Collection

GAC number

16684