James Hewitt

James Hewitt from 1790 by John Hoppner depicts a figure from the Georgian professional or gentry class. Hoppner's extensive body of male portraiture documented the professional, military, and landed classes who formed the backbone of Georgian society. Hoppner's oil handling favored warm flesh tones over silvery grey half-shadows, producing an immediate vivacity that reflected his admiration for Reynolds and Gainsborough. Neoclassicism (c.1760-1830) revived the austere virtues of ancient Greece and Rome in reaction to Rococo frivolity.

The gentleman's portrait is rendered with Hoppner's characteristic atmospheric technique, the fluid brushwork capturing the sitter's features with warmth and directness.