Samuel Scott, the Marine Painter

Thomas Hudson painted this portrait of the marine painter Samuel Scott around 1732, depicting his fellow artist in a straightforward pose that reflects the collegial directness of one painter depicting another. Hudson was the leading portrait painter in London in the decades before Joshua Reynolds returned from Italy to overshadow him, and he trained Reynolds himself, making him a pivotal figure in the transmission of British portrait painting. Samuel Scott, known as the 'English Canaletto,' was the finest marine and topographical painter in Georgian England before Canaletto himself arrived in London in 1746, after which Scott shifted to focus on London river scenes. This portrait of one major painter by another provides a window into the professional milieu of mid-Georgian London's artistic community. The National Gallery holds this as an example of Hudson's solid, dependable portrait manner that sustained British portraiture until Reynolds transformed the genre with his Grand Manner ambitions.

Hudson renders his fellow artist with the solid, competent technique that made him the most prolific portraitist of his era. The warm palette and the informal pose create an engaging portrait of an artistic colleague.