Edward Howard

Description

Thin layers of oil build the face first, laid down so the transitions from light to shadow along the cheek and brow happen without a visible seam. The palette stays close to the body: warm ochres and rose in the skin, cooled at the temples and jaw, set against the deeper browns and blacks of the coat. Edges soften where the sitter turns from the light and sharpen where a collar or a curl of hair catches it, a control of transition that reads, on close inspection, as the record of a steady hand working wet paint into wet paint.

About Edward Howard

The man at the centre of this portrait is Edward Howard, posed with the composed bearing common to the Grand Tour commissions that occupied Batoni through much of the mid eighteenth century. He is not shown mid gesture or engaged in any activity; the picture rests on presence alone, on the set of the shoulders and the directness of the gaze. Cloth, lace, and skin are each given their own kind of attention, so that a sleeve or a fold of fabric can hold as much of the eye as the face itself.

What separates this from a merely competent likeness is the balance Batoni struck between observed particularity and a kind of Roman polish inherited from classical sculpture and the paintings he studied in his youth. The features are individual, not generalized, yet nothing about the handling feels rough or accidental. Light moves across the face in careful, almost sculptural planes, and the surrounding darkness is worked with enough variation that it never goes flat. It belongs to a period when portraiture and connoisseurship were closely tied, when a well painted likeness doubled as proof of taste and standing.

ByMuseum recreates this portrait as a hand-painted oil painting reproduction, worked by a trained painter directly onto artist-grade canvas rather than printed by machine. The aim is to match the palette Batoni built up in those flesh tones and dark grounds, and to keep the visible brushwork and surface texture that give the original its particular weight. Each canvas is a handmade oil painting in its own right, carrying the same layered depth of colour, not a flat copy of one.

The hand-painted reproduction

Live with it for a while and the picture keeps giving something back. A shift in the light through the room brings out a plane of the face that was not obvious before, or a passage of shadow near the collar that had gone unnoticed. It rewards the kind of attention a good portrait always has, slow and returning rather than immediate.

• Hand-painted in oil on canvas by a professional artist
• Available in multiple sizes to fit your space
• Gallery-ready presentation, ready to hang
• Certificate of authenticity included with every order
• Free worldwide shipping, with no shipping charge to any country