Mr. Forbes
George Romney·c. 1780/1790
Historical Context
Romney's handling of landscape backgrounds in his outdoor portraits reflects his awareness of both the Reynolds tradition of integrating figure with natural setting and the older Van Dyck example of aristocratic figures in atmospheric parkland. His landscape settings are rarely topographically specific — the trees, skies, and general outdoor atmospheres serve as atmospheric settings rather than documents of particular places — but they create a quality of natural ease and social freedom that suited the Georgian ideal of aristocratic life as a comfortable conjunction of cultural refinement and natural environment.
Technical Analysis
Romney's technique for male portraits employs a darker, more restrained palette than his female portraits, with strong contrasts between the face and the dark costume and background. The face is modeled with warm, naturalistic tones while the composition is kept deliberately simple and direct.
Provenance
(M. Knoedler & Co.), 1921, from whom it was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Sabin, Southampton, Long Island, New York. Mrs. Sabin, née Pauline Morton, later became Mrs. Dwight F. Davis, Washington [d. 1955]; gift to NGA, 1954.
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