John Russell
(English, Guildford 1745 – 1806 Hull)
41. William Man Godschall (1720 – 1802), 1791 Pastel on paper, laid down on canvas; 23¾ x 17¾ in. (60.3 x 45.1 cm). Signed and dated right of center: J Russell RA. Pinx •t / 1791. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wiesenberger, 1961 (61.182.1)
42. Mrs. William Man Godschall (1730 – 1795), 1791 Pastel on paper, laid down on canvas; 23¾ x 17¾ in. (60.3 x 45.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wiesenberger, 1961 (61.182.2)
43. John Collins of Devizes, 1799 Pastel on paper, 30 x 25¼ in. (76.2 x 64.1 cm). Signed and dated in red crayon at lower right: J. Russell RA / pinxit 1799. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Paul Mellon Collection (B1977.14.6261)
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The son of a seller of books and prints, John Russell was born in 1745 in Guildford, Surrey, where he attended the local grammar school. He served an apprenticeship with Francis Cotes (see nos. 35 and 36) in London before setting up his own studio there in 1768. He then entered the Royal Academy schools, and from 1769 until his death he exhibited annually, becoming an associate member in 1772 and a full member in 1788. He showed a total of 332 pastels at the Academy. Russell was crayon painter—as a pastelist was then called—to both King George III and the Prince of Wales, later George IV. He specialized in portraits and so-called fancy pictures, a sort of combination of real life scenes and disguised portraiture, often involving children and sometimes animals. As the author of Elements of Painting with Crayons, published in 1772 and the most important instructional text of its kind, he is even now considered an authoritative voice on the materials and techniques of pastel. Until 2002 Russell was the only major eighteenth-century pastelist (except Jean Baptiste Pillement, who did not do portraits) represented in the Metropolitan Museum’s permanent collection. According to labels from the reverse of each of these two portraits, Mr. and Mrs. Man Godschall sat for Russell in the year of their fortieth anniversary. Their portraits were installed in the dining room of Weston House, at Albury, Surrey.
Sarah Godschall, an only child, had inherited the old manor house and property from her father, Nicholas, and his older brother, Sir Robert, a former Lord Mayor of London. William took Sarah’s name when they married. Man Godschall held a Doctor of Laws degree and was a member of various learned societies. His income derived from dairy farming. With his bright eyes and dark brows, he looks younger here than his seventy-one years. His coat collar and black hair ribbon are covered with a quantity of fresh powder from his wig. His formidable wife wears her hair dressed wide in the fashionable style of the moment. The crinkled and ruffled fabric of her elaborate cap and shawl frame her carefully modeled face. She occupies a disproportionately large part of the picture surface by comparison with her husband, and it is possible to imagine that she was deliberately presenting herself to Russell as the heiress that she was. Among Russell’s exhibits at the Royal Academy in 1799 was this portrait of John Collins of Devizes, in Wiltshire. Wiltshire is sheep country and Collins, who was in the wool trade, is shown leaning on a fencepost with a splendid ram beside him. It can be assumed that he was honestly portrayed, for his forehead is lined, his cheek and hand are quite heavily veined, and he is nearly bald, with what hair he has already gray. According to one local historian, Collins was an antiquary. Many