Alfred Stannard (1806–1889), Aged 19

This 1825 portrait of Alfred Stannard depicts the Norwich School painter at age nineteen, a fellow Norfolk artist captured by the aging Beechey near the end of his own long career. The connection between portraitist and subject reflects the artistic networks of regional English painting in the early nineteenth century, when provincial schools maintained their own communities of artists and patrons. The portrait reflects Beechey's extensive practice among the English gentry and professional classes, executed with the solid, dependable technique that made him widely trusted across all levels of Georgian society. Alfred Stannard would go on to specialize in marine and landscape subjects in the Norwich tradition, and this early portrait records his youthful appearance before he had established himself. Now at the Norfolk Museums Collections, the work is part of the comprehensive record of Norwich School artists that the regional museums have assembled as a testament to one of England's most distinctive local painting traditions.

The young artist's fresh features are rendered with sympathetic warmth, the informal portrait capturing the sitter's youthful energy with Beechey's experienced hand.