(c.1703 - 1771)
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.
