Theophilia Gwatkin
1776–81
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
73.7 × 61 cm (29 × 24 in.); Framed: 96.6 × 84.7 × 7 cm (38 × 33 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
portrait
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
251126
Art Historical Context
Sir Joshua Reynolds' *Theophilia Gwatkin (1776–81) is a captivating oil-on-canvas portrait that exemplifies the elegance of 18th-century British painting. Measuring 73.7 × 61 cm, this intimate half-length depiction captures the young sitter with a tender, naturalistic charm, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Department of Painting and Sculpture of. Reynolds, as the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts, mastered the Grand Manner style, blending classical with vivid realism to elevate everyday subjects into timeless figures. Painted during Reynolds' mature career, the work showca...
About the Artist
Sir Joshua Reynolds · 1723–1792
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) was a British painter who became the dominant figure in eighteenth-century British art and the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. Born in Plympton, Devon, he studied under the portrait painter Thomas Hudson in London, and a transformative visit to Italy (1749–52) — where he studied the Old Masters, particularly the Venetian colorists and Michelangelo — sh...