Self-portrait, aged 21
Sir William Blake Richmond British
Sitter Sir William Blake Richmond British
Not on view
This sitter’s namesake was William Blake, a poet-painter revered by his artist-father George Richmond. The younger Richmond was godson to Samuel Palmer and took drawing lessons from the critic John Ruskin, shaping a career path that must have seemed preordained. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1858 at age sixteen and painted this work five years later. It pays tribute to a miniature self-portrait that his father had painted in 1830, when he was the same age (now in the National Portrait Gallery, London). The subjects in both works adopt similar poses and soulful expressions, but the heightened tonality and use of blue shadows here are more up-to-date and demonstrate an interest in the Pre-Raphaelites.
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