Artifact World Gallery
Get the iOS app

Mrs. Robert Shurlock (Henrietta Ann Jane Russell, 1775–1849) and Her Daughter Ann by John Russell

John Russell · 1801-01-01

John Russell painted this pastel portrait of his daughter Henrietta Ann Jane and her infant Ann in 1801, and he never took a shilling for it. The work stayed with the family, a private record rather than a commission. Russell was Painter to King George III and a Royal Academician, celebrated for his pastel technique, but this picture was purely personal, a grandfather capturing two generations in white.

The real show is the white-on-white problem. The mother’s gauze shawl, the baby’s lace cap, the textured cotton dress, all against a near-white gown and a dark ground. Russell differentiated every surface by controlling the tooth of the pastel: soft blending for translucent lace, sharper strokes for embroidery, unblended highlights for the catchlight in two pairs of dark eyes.

Henrietta married Robert Shurlock, a surgeon, and the portrait passed through the family without fanfare. Pastels are notoriously fragile, light-sensitive, impossible to clean, vulnerable to vibration, so its survival in this condition is a minor miracle. The infant Ann’s direct, wide-eyed stare still does the work of pulling a viewer in, while her mother’s composure anchors the picture in Regency decorum.

A painting made for love, not money. What do you notice first, the protective arm, or the baby’s reaching hand?

Details

He painted it for himself. His daughter. Her child.
He painted it for himself. His daughter. Her child.
Look at the lace.
Look at the lace.
Now the cap. Same white. Entirely different texture.
Now the cap. Same white. Entirely different texture.
John Russell kept this in his own house until he died.
John Russell kept this in his own house until he died.
The baby stares directly out with wide, lively eyes that contrast sharply with the mother's composed demeanor , this gaze-to-viewer connection is the painting's emotional spark.
The baby stares directly out with wide, lively eyes that contrast sharply with the mother's composed demeanor , this gaze-to-viewer connection is the painting's emotional spark.
Transcript

The artist never sold this picture. He painted it for himself. His daughter. Her child. Look at the lace. Pastel on paper, built in soft layers until it reads as transparent gauze. Now the cap. Same white. Entirely different texture. John Russell kept this in his own house until he died.