The Artist's Son
Artist
Martin Archer Shee
(Irish, 1769-1850)
Dateca. 1820
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 x 33 1/2 in. (99.1 x 85.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 x 33 1/2 in. (99.1 x 85.1 cm)
ClassificationsEuropean art
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.672
Terms
- Boy
Collections
On View
Not on viewLabel TextMartin Archer Shee Irish (1769-1850) The Artist's Son, ca. 1820 Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm) Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.672 Little-known today, the Dublin-born Martin Archer Shee achieved considerable fame as a society portraitist in early nineteenth-century London. Shee was especially adept at painting children, as seen in his charming portrayal of his third and youngest son William, then ten years old. Shee painted at least two replicas of the portrait-the Chrysler's painting and another that is today in the collection of the Royal Academy, London (see illustration). English portraiture in the first half of the nineteenth century was dominated by the paintings of Sir Thomas Lawrence. Though Shee tried to emulate Lawrence's popular Romantic style, he could not match his technical brilliance or fluent, painterly touch. Nevertheless, at Lawrence's sudden death in 1830, Shee succeeded him as president of the Royal Academy and crowned his career eight years later with an official portrait of Queen Victoria.
ca. 1615
