1821
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of Anne Law (née Towry), 1st Lady Ellenborough is a 1821 unspecified by John Linnell, a Biedermeier work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman in a dark dress sits against a dark background, her pale face and lace collar glowing. Soft light wraps her like a halo, making her look calm and serious. Linnell painted this when he was still young, just starting to make a name for himself. The quiet way he handles light and shadow shows he was paying close attention to the old masters, even if he wasn’t part of any big art movement yet. If you like how the light feels here, look up *chiaroscuro*.
John Linnell was born and lived much of his young adulthood in Bloomsbury, where his father, James, made picture frames and restored paintings. As a boy the artist trained briefly with Benjamin West (1738–1820) and John Varley (1778–1842) before becoming a student at the Royal Academy from 1805 to 1812. Though primarily known for his landscapes, Linnell was also a prolific portraitist and executed miniatures during the first two decades of his career, learning the medium from his neighbor James Holmes (1770–1860). According to an early biographer, Linnell began painting miniatures around 1818…
Lady Ellenborough was described as “so exceedingly lovely, that passengers would linger to watch her watering the flowers—such was the fashion of the day—on the balcony of their house in Bloomsbury Square.”
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Linnell (16 June 1792 – 20 January 1882) was an English engraver, portrait painter, and landscape painter.
See the richer artist page
