Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg

This self-portrait by Philip James de Loutherbourg presents the artist at the height of his London career, when he was scene designer for David Garrick at Drury Lane (from 1771) and a celebrated painter of battles, shipwrecks, and Sublime landscapes. Born in Fulda to an Alsatian family and trained in Paris, de Loutherbourg arrived in London at thirty and became one of the most theatrically minded painters of his generation. His Eidophusikon (1781) — a miniature theatrical show of moving scenery and changing light effects — was among the most technically innovative public entertainments of the era.

The portrait follows conventions of professional self-presentation — three-quarter pose, direct gaze, appropriate dignity. Warm flesh tones are set against a darker ground, with the face receiving careful modelling and the costume suggested more broadly.