Self-Portrait
1795
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914
Accession Number
15.30.37
Tags
About this artwork
George Romney painted this self-portrait in the winter of 1795 when he was sixty years old. The oil on canvas depicts the artist with striking immediacy, painted in a single session with what his son described as "uncommon power of execution." The portrait reveals both Romney's technical mastery and the physical toll of his artistic career. According to the artist's son, Reverend John Romney, the portrait exhibits "a certain expression of languor that indicates the approach of disease," as Romn...
Art Historical Context
In the winter of 179, George Romney, then 60 years old, painted striking *Self-Portrait* in oil canvas during a single session—an extraordinary feat showcasing his "uncommon power of execution as noted by his son, Reverend John Romney. At 30 x 25 inches, the work captures the artist with vivid immediacy, his face fully realized while the background and details remain summarily treated. This technique mirrored the practices of England's leading portraitists, like Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, among whom Romney was the most fashionable during his prime. Remarkably, Romney executed th...
About the Artist
George Romney · 1734–1802
George Romney (1734–1802) was a British portrait painter who, alongside Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough, formed the triumvirate of great English portraitists in the second half of the eighteenth century. Born in Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire, he received his early training from the itinerant portrait painter Christopher Steele before moving to London in 1762. Romney quickly establishe...