This portrait depicts Charles Hotchkin (?–1783), who served as Sheriff of Bristol from 1759 and was appointed mayor of the city in 1774. The picture was probably made by Gainsborough during his immensely productive Bath period. The fashionable spa town, located close to Bristol, provided the painter with an elegant clientele. Here, Gainsborough could also study the numerous portraits by Van Dyck that hung in the homes of the local elite. Due to this influence, Gainsborough’s style grew increasingly refined. His figures, radiating a sense of serene confidence, were painted in a casual manner with lyrical sensitivity. As his use of colour and his brushwork became more varied over time, the artist endowed his works with distinctively virtuoso finished surfaces of pigment.
Benkő, Éva – Garas, Klára – Urbach, Zsuzsa, Ember, Ildikó – Takács, Imre (eds.), Old Masters’ Gallery Summary Catalogue Vol. 3: German, Austrian, Bohemian and British Paintings 3, Budapest, p. 144.
Pigler, Andor, Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, 1-2. Museum der Bildenden Künste, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest. 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1967, p. 253-254., 395.
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