INTRODUCTION Portraits have fascinated people ever since cavemen first drew round the profile of a shadow thrown by flickering firelight. Our selection spans from the Dutch Golden Age of the seventeenth century to the Jazz Age of the 1920s. These portraits were made for many different reasons: to show kinship and friendship; power and professional standing; as the public face of families and as tributes to a beloved companion. Notable among them is the delicately painted, psychologically penetrating portrait of Prince Rupert of the Palatine (cat. 4) by Jan Lievens, Rembrandt’s rival as the leading Leiden portrait painter around 1630. Gerard Donck’s portrait of Nicolaes Lossy and his wife Marritgen, c.1633 (cat. 5), celebrates not only a marriage but Lossy’s prestige as City Organist of the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam: the couple are enveloped in an exquisitely-painted still life of musical instruments and scores. Johan Zoffany’s monumental, lifesize painting of Claud Alexander and his brother Boyd (cat. 16), executed in Calcutta in 1784, dramatises the moment when Claud learns that his Indian-made fortune has purchased him an estate in his beloved Scotland, crowning his career. The sweet candour of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s painting of Elizabeth, Lady Forbes, c.1775 (cat. 15) demonstrates why he was the most soughtafter portraitist of his age, catching likeness, elegance and personality with fluid, bravura brushstrokes. Society portraits of beautiful women hold their fascination down the centuries. Augustus John’s Baronne Baba d’Erlanger and Miss Paula Gellibrand, 1919–21 (cat. 31), portrays two sleek, stylish friends at the cutting edge of fashion, entwined in vivid swathes of Jazz Age colour. Sir John Lavery’s Mrs Rosen’s bedroom, 1926 (cat. 33) vividly evokes the New York society hostess through her clothes and interior decorations, rather than her features. We are indebted to the scholars who have contributed so much to unlocking the secrets of portraiture in history. We would especially like to thank Dr Wendy Baron, Dr Caroline Corbeau, Andrew Cormack, Sabine Craft-Giepmans, Dr Lloyd DeWitt, Dr Rudi Ekkart, Karen Hearn, Rebecca John, Dr Friso Lammertse, Professor Kenneth McConkey, Pippa Mason, Professor David Mannings, Professor Leonée Ormond, Dr Richard Ormond, Professor Aileen Ribeiro, Marie-Caroline Sainsaulieu, Dr Bernhard Schnackenburg, Peter Sutton, Mary Webster, Prof. Dr Ernst van der Wetering and Dr Arthur K Wheelock. Richard Green Executive Chairman
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