John Hoppner
John Hoppner RA (born April 4, 1758 in London , † January 23, 1810 in London ) was an English painter of German descent and court painter to the English royal family. As the successor to Sir Joshua Reynolds , he dominated the London art scene from 1790 to 1810. Hoppner painted famous personalities, from the Prince of Wales , later King George IV, to the British national heroes Nelson and Wellington .
Life
Hoppner was the son of a German chambermaid of Queen Charlotte , the wife of King George III. From early youth he enjoyed the support of Georg III , which at that time led to speculation that Hoppner was his son, although this has never been proven. Growing up at the British court, he was a choirboy at the Chapel Royal . Due to his strong interest in art, he received permission from the King in 1775 to transfer to the Royal Academy of Arts .
In 1782 he was awarded the gold medal, the academy's highest honor, for the historical painting of King Lear . In 1785, Hoppner was commissioned to paint the king's three youngest daughters, Princess Sophie, Amelia and Mary. These pictures are still in the royal collection today. In 1778, Hoppner received the silver medal from the academy for his realistic drawings. His early love was landscape painting, but he switched to the more lucrative portraiture. Hoppner became an established portrait painter, to whom his connections to the court brought many important clients. He was instantly successful and became Sir Thomas Lawrence's greatest rival .
In 1789 he became the portrait painter for the Prince of Wales, despite expressions of sympathy for the rebels in the American Revolutionary War by Hoppner's mother-in-law, the American sculptor Patience Wright , whose daughter he had married Phoebe .
After Hoppner was elected to the Royal Academy in 1795, he exhibited his pictures there from 1780 to 1809. In his later years, Hoppner suffered from a liver disease. When he died on January 23, 1810, he had exhibited over 170 pictures in the Royal Academy alone.
Hoppner's son Richard Belgrave Hoppner also became a painter, but specialized more in maritime scenes than portraits.
plant
Hoppner was very popular as a portrait painter. He was a skilled draftsman with a keen awareness of color and free painting. His use of color, his understanding of anatomy, his sense of the textures of clothing, and the way he illuminated his portraits earned him widespread recognition. Influenced by the Venetian Renaissance, he captured a fresh and sympathetic, preferably youthful, portrait of his models. In the taste of the time, he combined the charisma of his models with romantic and classy poses. This can be seen in the portrait for Vice Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour, for example, in the expression and in the deep perspective. In his second portrait for Mrs. Sheridan, however, Hoppner refuted the allegation that he turned all his female models into beauties.
The best portraits are those of the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York, Lord Rodney, and Lord Nelson . His models include Sir Walter Scott , Arthur Wellington , John Hookham Frere and William Pitt the Younger .
Perhaps the best and most successful works of all are those by women and children. In 1803 Hoppner published a series of such motifs. Ideal motifs are rarely found in the work. Some examples are "The Sleeping Venus", "Belisarius", "Jupiter and Io", "Bacchante" and "Cupid and Psyche".
Today many pictures have faded and lost their vivid colors. But Hoppner's pictures served as a template for countless prints and replicas, which still give us an impression of the original condition of the pictures.
Catalog of works (excerpt)
- Admiral Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown , portrait
- Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson , portrait circa 1800
- Lord Cornwallis , portrait
- William Pitt , Studio of John Hoppner, portrait, oil on canvas, 1804–1805
- Joseph Haydn , portrait, 1791
- Sir Ralph Abercromby , portrait
- Captain Peter Parker , portrait 1808–1810
- Captain Henry Blackwood , portrait 1806
- Lord Hugh Seymour , portrait 1799
- The Sackville Children , oil on canvas, 152.4 × 124.5 cm, 1796, Metropolitan Museum of Art's, New York
- Miss Mary Linwood , portrait, oil on canvas, ca.1800
- Major Thomas Pechell (1753–1826), 1799, Metropolitan Museum of Art's, New York
- Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Her Son , Metropolitan Museum of Art's, New York
- John Hoppner , self-portrait, oil on canvas, 76.2 cm × 63.5 cm, ca.1800, National Portrait Gallery, London
- Dorothy Jordan , portrait, oil on canvas, 1791, National Portrait Gallery, London
- William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville , portrait, oil on canvas, c. 1800, National Portrait Gallery, London
- Charles Abbot, 1st Baron Colchester , portrait, oil on canvas, 1802, National Portrait Gallery, London
- The Viscountess of St Asaph , portrait, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
- Portrait of a Lady , portrait, oil on canvas, 1795, National Gallery of Victoria , Australia
- Mrs. Williams , portrait, oil on canvas, circa 1790, Tate Museum Britain
literature
William Cosmo Monkhouse: Hoppner, John . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 27: Hindmarsh - Hovenden. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1891, pp. 342 - 343 (English).
- McKay, William and W. Roberts: Hoppner, John Hoppner. New edition with supplement and index, London 1914.
Web links
- John Hopper in ArtCyclopedia
- John Hoppner in the nndb (English)
- John Hopper at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Individual evidence
- ^ John Hoppner in the database of the Royal Academy of Arts , English, accessed on May 22, 2013.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hoppner, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English painter of German descent |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 4, 1758 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 23, 1810 |
| Place of death | London |