Charlotte (Pilford) Grove

Maker George Romney (British, 1734-1802)

SitterSitter: Charolette (Pilfold) Grove (British, died 1828)

Collections

British Paintings

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1788

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 50 1/2 × 40 1/2 in. (128.3 × 102.9 cm.) frame: 64 1/2 × 54 × 4 in. (163.8 × 137.2 × 10.2 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, gift of Mildred Browning Green and Honorable Lucius Peyton Green

Label TextThis portrait of Charlotte Grove provides valuable insights into the tactics by which a fashionable Georgian artist coped with a booming portraiture business. The pose is a conventional one that Romney employed frequently during this period. The handling, which lacks the elegant confidence that characterized the painter at his best, is further evidence of a system designed to fulfill many commissions. In the studios of sought-after portrait painters, the artist often concentrated on the rendering of the head and allowed the rest of the canvas to be executed primarily by assistants.

Status

Not on view

Object number78.20.36