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LOT 81

Daniel Gardner Portrait of a gentleman standing at a pedestal

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Daniel Gardner
Kendal 1745 - 1805 London
Portrait of a gentleman standing at a pedestal

Pastel and bodycolour
955 by 660 mm

Condition Report:
Overall good condition. There is a loss of pigment on the sitter's stock. This can only be seen on close inspection. There is some minor water-staining just visible (in the lower right).

Please note that Condition 12 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers (Online Only) is not applicable to this lot.

Catalogue Note:
This striking portrait, which dates to circa 1790, shows a young man of the age of enlightenment leaning on a pedestal and distracted, for a moment, from his work.

Daniel Gardner was born in Kendal in the north of England and received early tuition from George Romney. Upon moving to London in 1770 he joined the Royal Academy Schools, before becoming attached to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s studio. Although heavily influenced by that great painter’s compositions and theories, Gardner chose pastel and paper as his preferred medium. Over time, he perfected a technique in which he worked with finely ground pastel pigments to describe his sitter’s flesh tones, while then playing with the different textural qualities of both watercolor and gouache when completing his compositions. These highly original combinations of techniques proved very successful and they gave him the advantage over his rivals: so much so that he has been described as the most successful English pastellist of the 18th century, ‘surpassing Reynolds in freedom and spontaneity and John Downman in attaining finer color.’1

N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800 (on-line edition)

We are grateful to Neil Jeffares for his helps when cataloguing this lot.

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Time, Location
05 Dec 2022
UK, London
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[ translate ]

Daniel Gardner
Kendal 1745 - 1805 London
Portrait of a gentleman standing at a pedestal

Pastel and bodycolour
955 by 660 mm

Condition Report:
Overall good condition. There is a loss of pigment on the sitter's stock. This can only be seen on close inspection. There is some minor water-staining just visible (in the lower right).

Please note that Condition 12 of the Conditions of Business for Buyers (Online Only) is not applicable to this lot.

Catalogue Note:
This striking portrait, which dates to circa 1790, shows a young man of the age of enlightenment leaning on a pedestal and distracted, for a moment, from his work.

Daniel Gardner was born in Kendal in the north of England and received early tuition from George Romney. Upon moving to London in 1770 he joined the Royal Academy Schools, before becoming attached to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s studio. Although heavily influenced by that great painter’s compositions and theories, Gardner chose pastel and paper as his preferred medium. Over time, he perfected a technique in which he worked with finely ground pastel pigments to describe his sitter’s flesh tones, while then playing with the different textural qualities of both watercolor and gouache when completing his compositions. These highly original combinations of techniques proved very successful and they gave him the advantage over his rivals: so much so that he has been described as the most successful English pastellist of the 18th century, ‘surpassing Reynolds in freedom and spontaneity and John Downman in attaining finer color.’1

N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800 (on-line edition)

We are grateful to Neil Jeffares for his helps when cataloguing this lot.

[ translate ]
Estimate
Unlock
Time, Location
05 Dec 2022
UK, London
Auction House
Unlock