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Lot Essay
Following his apprenticeship with Carle Vanloo and a period of great success in Paris which culminated in his nomination as peintre de roi, De Loutherbourg left for London in 1771. He arrived with an introduction to the legendary actor and stage-manager David Garrick from Jean Monnet, the director of the Opra-Comique in Paris, advising Garrick to commission De Loutherbourg to make three paintings 'one, a sea-piece, another a landscape in the manner of Berchem, and thirdly a battle scene'. Ignoring this, Garrick instead employed him to design the scenery for the pantomime, The Pigmy Revels. De Loutherbourg left Drury Lane after several years, and in 1776 began to broaden the range of his artistic production, concentrating on popular landscapes and developing a keen eye for genre and satire.
In 1781 De Loutherbourg was elected to the Royal Academy, an appointment which coincided with his involvement in a number of new projects. His interests were far ranging: at one moment he was producing the 'Eidophusikon', a miniature theater in the style of a peep-show, imitating the effects of nature through a series of moving images; in the next, he was organizing a masked ball for William Beckford at Fonthill Abbey.
The present work is both a topographical scene and an exercise in social satire. It depicts the Serpentine Pond in Hyde Park which froze in winter, attracting people from all social classes, who came to it to skate. De Loutherbourg portrayed several of his friends in this painting, including his wife, Lucy Paget (standing behind the figures at the chair). Near her is the engraver V.M. Picot (who was also De Loutherbourg's partner from 1776 to 1782), John Webber (the cartographer who accompanied Captain Cook on his third circumnavigation of the world) and Jean-Georges Noverre, the French-born choreographer and author of a seminal work on 18th-century dance, Lettres sur la danse (1769). De Loutherbourg himself can be identified as the young gentleman seated on a chair who is having his skates fitted (see for comparison Gainsborough's portrait of the artist at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, Inv. no. 66, which was painted in 1778). As a Frenchman transported to London, De Loutherbourg brought the sharp but affectionate eye of an observant outsider to this comic scene of Englishmen at play. A Winter Morning appealed, in particular, to Thomas Rowlandson, who must have seen it, together with its pendant, A Summer evening with a view of a road, when they were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776; the copy that he drew of it is today in the British Museum. These paintings were among De Loutherbourg's most famous works, and were the first of a number of depictions of popular amusements which the artist produced between 1776 and his brief withdrawal from public life around 1787. The popularity of the painting spread when De Loutherbourg sent Winter and later Summer, to be used by Matthew Boulton as models for 'polygraphs', or mechanical paintings. The process was established in 1776 as a means of making available, at low cost, reproductions true to the original painting's color. To make a polygraph, an acquatint plate was inked in several colors and transferred with pressure onto a prepared canvas; the copy was then touched up by hand and varnished. Boulton's mechanical paintings were only produced for four years because the expense of hand finishing made the process uneconomical.
The present painting is the primary version of A Winter Morning with Skating in Hyde Park. Among the replica copies produced by De Loutherbourg in response to popular demand are the versions in the Muse des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg; the Maidstone Museum, Kent, and a signed work in a private Dutch collection. The primary version of A Summer Evening is now lost, but is known from a replica of circa 1784-5, which was exhibited in 1973 at Kenwood House, London.
In 1781 De Loutherbourg was elected to the Royal Academy, an appointment which coincided with his involvement in a number of new projects. His interests were far ranging: at one moment he was producing the 'Eidophusikon', a miniature theater in the style of a peep-show, imitating the effects of nature through a series of moving images; in the next, he was organizing a masked ball for William Beckford at Fonthill Abbey.
The present work is both a topographical scene and an exercise in social satire. It depicts the Serpentine Pond in Hyde Park which froze in winter, attracting people from all social classes, who came to it to skate. De Loutherbourg portrayed several of his friends in this painting, including his wife, Lucy Paget (standing behind the figures at the chair). Near her is the engraver V.M. Picot (who was also De Loutherbourg's partner from 1776 to 1782), John Webber (the cartographer who accompanied Captain Cook on his third circumnavigation of the world) and Jean-Georges Noverre, the French-born choreographer and author of a seminal work on 18th-century dance, Lettres sur la danse (1769). De Loutherbourg himself can be identified as the young gentleman seated on a chair who is having his skates fitted (see for comparison Gainsborough's portrait of the artist at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, Inv. no. 66, which was painted in 1778). As a Frenchman transported to London, De Loutherbourg brought the sharp but affectionate eye of an observant outsider to this comic scene of Englishmen at play. A Winter Morning appealed, in particular, to Thomas Rowlandson, who must have seen it, together with its pendant, A Summer evening with a view of a road, when they were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776; the copy that he drew of it is today in the British Museum. These paintings were among De Loutherbourg's most famous works, and were the first of a number of depictions of popular amusements which the artist produced between 1776 and his brief withdrawal from public life around 1787. The popularity of the painting spread when De Loutherbourg sent Winter and later Summer, to be used by Matthew Boulton as models for 'polygraphs', or mechanical paintings. The process was established in 1776 as a means of making available, at low cost, reproductions true to the original painting's color. To make a polygraph, an acquatint plate was inked in several colors and transferred with pressure onto a prepared canvas; the copy was then touched up by hand and varnished. Boulton's mechanical paintings were only produced for four years because the expense of hand finishing made the process uneconomical.
The present painting is the primary version of A Winter Morning with Skating in Hyde Park. Among the replica copies produced by De Loutherbourg in response to popular demand are the versions in the Muse des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg; the Maidstone Museum, Kent, and a signed work in a private Dutch collection. The primary version of A Summer Evening is now lost, but is known from a replica of circa 1784-5, which was exhibited in 1973 at Kenwood House, London.