Pompeo Batoni’s Portrait of a Gentleman in a red coat (c.1758-9)

Batoni, Portrait of a Gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a red coat and blue waistcoat with gold embroidery (c.1758-9) Oil on canvas. Private Collection

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Pompeo Batoni, the principal portraitist of the Grand Tour, is usually considered a run-of-the-mill, technically proficient painter with few, if any, claims to greatness. He is as close to a mere painter as a good artist can get. Nevertheless, even he used face fusion to indicate that despite his lowly calling (portraiture for visiting tourists) he was an artist who painted himself. Indeed it seems to have been common knowledge in studios that every painter paints himself. The evidence, especially in Italy, would have been everywhere.

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Left: Detail of Batoni's Portrait of a Gentleman (c.1758-9); Right: Detail of Batoni's Self-portrait (1773)

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I have found no self-portrait of Batoni prior to the young man's portrait but in using one from 15 years later, similarities are evident. (Artists often strike the same pose in their self-portraits so a similar, earlier one may well have existed.) Note, for instance, the raised and arched eyebrows, the thin upper lip, a protruding lower one and a chin seemingly off-center. These similarities are too great for coincidence so must be intentional, a method of constructing a face still unknown to conventional art historians.

More Works by Batoni

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Original Publication Date on EPPH: 30 Jan 2012. | Updated: 0. © Simon Abrahams. Articles on this site are the copyright of Simon Abrahams. To use copyrighted material in print or other media for purposes beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Websites may link to this page without permission (please do) but may not reproduce the material on their own site without crediting Simon Abrahams and EPPH.