Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.180
Gallery Label:
Little is known about the provincial portrait painter George Beare, and the sitters in this double portrait, perhaps grandmother and granddaughter, are unidentified. The image presents a sympathetic contrast between the older woman, elaborately dressed in gray damask and lace, and the freshness and simplicity of the girl. The painting represents a subtle shift in taste from the rococo style, as practiced in Britain by painters like Jean-Baptiste van Loo and Francis Hayman, toward the more direct English style of naturalism associated with William Hogarth. The sumptuous fabrics suggest that the sitters belonged to one of the wealthier families of the Salisbury region where Beare had his studio, and it has been suggested that they were members of the Grove family of Ferne House, Berwick St. John, Wiltshire. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
