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PORTRAIT OF MRS. RICHARD HOARE WITH HER INFANT SON
By SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

PORTRAIT OF MRS. RICHARD HOARE WITH HER INFANT SON
By SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. (1723-1792)
IN THE WALLACE COLLECTION, LONDON

Reynolds had the gift of uniting extraordinary technical skill with the faculty of pleasing the ordinary picture lover. He could copy the old masters so effectively that even to-day there is doubt in some cases whether certain pictures are his work or are from the brushes of the artists to whom they are ascribed. Even more astonishing, perhaps, was his dexterity, for though he worked with extraordinary quickness, his paintings do not betray (to the uninitiated, at any rate) any sign of haste. He was a great portrait painter, and was perhaps even greater as a painter of children, though he has been reproached with a tendency to portray little Italian angels rather than English children of real flesh and blood. That criticism certainly does not apply to this charming picture - charming both in its delightful colouring and in its tender sentiment. It is a great tribute to his genius, for it shows that while he could rival the Italians in their work, he could still reveal in such inimitable fashion a scene with characters which are essentially English. The picture, indeed, is a reply to his critics. The mother and the child live for us and stir the deep emotions which only genius can reach. Great portrait painter as he was, Reynolds has here given us a painting that is no mere portrait to please a distinguished patron, but is a study in maternal love and pride, tenderly conceived and delightfully rendered.

Reynolds stood alone as the painter of the great men of his time, and the revealer of their characters and capacities. In this picture he showed that he also possessed the gift of seeing into the heart of a mother, and appreciating the self-sacrificing devotion which she displays towards her offspring.

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

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Online "Name the Painting"

Sir Joshua Reynolds
ebook by Estelle M. Hurll, read online

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Tate Collection

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James Archer My Great Grandmother	Bashkirtseff The Meeting	Bouguereau Charity	John Brett From the Dorsetshire Cliffs
Arnesby Brown The River Bank	Joseph Clark Mother's Darling	John Constable The Hay-Wain	Jean Baptiste Camille Corot The Fisherman's Hut
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot A Flood	Leonardo Da Vinci Monna Lisa	Edouard Detaille The Dream	Henri Fantin-Latour Flowers
Thomas Gainsborough Queen Charlotte	Thomas Gainsborough The Market Cart	Jean Baptiste Greuze The Head of a Girl	Jean Baptiste Greuze Fidelity
James Clark Hook Home With the Tide	Alfred William Hunt Windsor Castle	Josef Israels The Shipwrecked Mariner	B.W. Leader The Stream in Summer-time
Madame Vigee Le Brun Portrait of the Artist	Alphonse Legros A Canal With a Fisherman	Anton Mauve Watering Horses	J.L.E. Meissonier The Cavalier
Sir J.E. Millais Speak! Speak!	Sir J.E. Mallais My First Sermon	George Morland The Reckoning	George Morland The Inside of a Stable
Murillo The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin	Alfred Parsons When Nature Painted All Things Gay	Ralph Peacock The Sisters	Rembrandt Syndics of the Cloth Merchants' Guild
Guido Reni "Ecce Homo"	Sir Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare With Her Infant Son	Briton Riviere The Temptation in the Wilderness	Dante Gabriel Rossetti Day Dreams
John Singer Sargent Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth	Lady Stanley (Dorothy Tennant) His First Offence	Jan Steen Grace Before Meat	Marcus Stone On the Road from Waterloo to Paris
Constant Troyon Watering Cattle	H.S. Tuke "All Hands to the Pumps"	Velazquez King Philip IV. of Spain	S.E. Waller Sweethearts and Wives
Thomas Webster The Smile	Index Famous Paintings Volume 1 Art Gallery	Index Famous Paintings Volume 2 Art Gallery	Index Art Appreciation Lessons