GEORGE ENGLEHEART

This portrait of an unknown gentleman by George Engleheart mirrors the pose and swagger of Cosway’s portraits of this period, for example the portrait of a ‘Mr Bradshaw’ in the Cincinnati Art Museum. The slight upward tilt of the head and sky background give a dynamism to these small works of art which were also closer in feel to the larger oil portraits of the period (Engleheart had trained with Sir Joshua Reynolds). This work is a particularly good example by Engleheart and is particularly well preserved in terms of the bright colours.

The care that Engleheart took in every portrait he painted is evident in this work. Over his 39-year career, he is estimated to have painted 4,853 miniatures, and the quality of his work remained consistent throughout. This is astonishing, given that he was working around 70 hours a week (the time it took to paint a miniature is fairly well documented - typically around 35 hours for a head and shoulders portrait).