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« ‘The magical circle’: Thomas Lawrence and the art of portraiture »

Résumé

Like his landscape colleagues—Gainsborough, Wright of Derby, Girtin, Bonington, Constable, Turner—who, at the same period, gave the landscape genre unprecedented autonomy and radiance, Lawrence developed the art of portraiture in infinite variations, searching for that truthfulness and intimacy whose outlines he tirelessly endeavored to grasp. His portraits are of a great sobriety of means at the service of a more direct, more intense rendering of his models’ personalities but also of what was at stake, physically and psychologically, when they sat to him. With their sketched backgrounds and their sparse economy of details and objects, Lawrence's portraits make the link between painting and truth the central issue of his work. At a time when new economic and political logics arose, caused by the various revolutions at the turn of the century, the very conception of identity and the values that defined it were undergoing a profound change. Title, rank, landed property and, especially after Waterloo, military glory ceased to constitute the summit of an intangible social pyramid. Business acumen, a taste for work, self-sacrifice, independence, and a concern for the progress of nation and empire, defined a new, ‘modern’ form of identity, in which individuals mattered more than their social positioning, and the consequences of which came to be felt as much in the public sphere as in a thorough redefinition of the family sphere. Thanks to the longevity of his career, the perspicacity of his gaze and the social diversity of his subjects, Lawrence was the privileged witness of these developments—which some have called "the new regime of individuality" —of which his art offers us an exceptional visual chronicle.
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Dates et versions

halshs-04009688, version 1 (01-03-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-04009688 , version 1

Citer

Frédéric Ogée. « ‘The magical circle’: Thomas Lawrence and the art of portraiture ». L'art du portrait britannique(1750-1900), Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2021, Bordeaux, France. ⟨halshs-04009688⟩
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Dernière date de mise à jour le 07/04/2024
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