George Richmond, Self-Portrait, about 1840. Oil paint on canvas; 23 1/2 × 18 1/2 in. (59.7 × 47 cm). Denver Art Museum: Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2018.27

image height: 23 1/2 in, 59.6900 cm; image width: 18 1/2 in, 46.9900 cm; frame height: 30 7/8 in, 78.4225 cm; frame width: 25 7/8 in, 65.7225 cm; frame depth: 2 1/8 in, 5.3975 cm

European and American Art Before 1900

European Painting and Sculpture before 1900

George Richmond was one of the nineteenth century’s most gifted portraitists. He exhibited his first work at London’s Royal Academy at age sixteen and by his mid-twenties had established a thriving portraiture practice. Throughout a long career, he portrayed members of the gentry and others in high positions, among them Charlotte Bronte and Charles Darwin. Richmond’s style reflects his academic training combined with a love of the Old Masters. In this work, dated about 1840, the dramatic lighting effects recall examples by Caravaggio and his followers, which he could have seen throughout his his Italian sojourn in the late 1830s.
 

Studio of the artist; by descent to his great-great-granddaughter; her sale, Sotheby's London, July 2001, lots 129; with Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 2007; from which acquired by the Berger Collection Educational Trust, Denver, 2007; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2018. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.

• “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018