: Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts' annual exhibition of portraits is
currently on view through February 27.
The scope of the exhibition is from circa 1480 until the 1950s,
with the majority of the works dating from the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Centuries. English, Dutch, and Flemish artists
predominate, but also included are works by French, Spanish and
American artists.
Notably in the show are portraits of four writers. The earliest
is a portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, traditionally called Sir
Charles Sedley. Sedley, one of the most notorious wits in the
court of Charles II, was a poet and playwright. J. Douglas
Stewart, the Kneller expert, in his entry on this work, states
"the recovery of Kneller's brilliant portrait (after its virtual
loss for 90 years) is a major event for the study of late Stuart
English portraiture."
Next is a marble portrait bust of Jonathan Swift by John van Nost
the Younger. Swift is most famous as the author of Gulliver's
Travels. Only four busts of Swift, including this one, are
known to have been sculpted in the Eighteenth Century. Also in
the show is Sir Henry Raeburn's portrait of Henry Mackenzie, one
of the leading literary and legal figures in Edinburgh at the end
of the Eighteenth and early part of the Nineteenth Centuries. Of
his book The Man of Feeling, Robert Burns wrote it is "a
book I prize next to the Bible."
Finally, there is Sir Jacob Epstein's bronze portrait head of
George Bernard Shaw. Shaw who wrote more than 50 plays is best
remembered for Candida and Pygmalion. Epstein's
bronze encapsulates the spirit, playfulness and fire of the
author's personality and literary production.
An illustrated catalog of the exhibition is available upon
request. All the works in the exhibition as well as other recent
acquisitions can be viewed at www.steigrad.com.
Hours are 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday and Saturday by
appointment. Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts is at 42 East 76th
Street. For information, 212-517-3643.
