03 — ARTWORK
Portrait of William Bedford
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, oval, 38 x 28 cm
- TYPE
- Portrait
PALETTE
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CURRENT LOCATION · Private Collection
- FILE
- 1016 × 1200 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
PortraitThe Roman portrait bust survived in the form of life-sized reliquaries of saints, but it was in 15th century Florence that the individual features and character of a contemporary sitter were accurately recorded by sculptors such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole and the Rossellino. A similar degree of realism occurs in 15th century tomb sculpture. The equestrian portrait, based on antique statues such as the Marcus Aurelius monument (Rome, Campidoglio), was revived in the 14th century. Two examples in fresco are Simone Martini's Guidoriccio (c. 1328; Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) and the posthumous portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (1436; Florence, Cathedral) by Uccello, which gives the illusion of a 3-dimensional statue seen from below. The Venetian Republic ordered imposing monuments from Donatello (1447; Gattarnelata, Padua) and Verrocchio (14799; Colleoni, Venice), whilst other statesmen ordered their own images to be erected in public places, directly relating themselves to the military heroes of ancient Rome. Another form of political portraiture derived from antiquity was the commemorative portrait medal designed by artists such as Pisanello. The carved or painted profile portrait became popular in the 1450s. The realism of the clear, flattened image, painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or Andrea del Sarto's arresting Portrait of a Man (London, National Gallery). The 16th century portrait became generalized, Lotto's Andrea Odoni (1527; Royal Collection) being an idealized concept of a collector rather than an individual. Group portraits, decorating whole rooms, include the narrative scenes of the Gonzaga court painted by Mantegna (completed 1474; Mantua, Palazzo Ducale) and the elaborate schemes commissioned by the Farnese family in Rome from Vasari (1546; Palazzo della Cancelleria) and Salviati (after 1553; Palazzo Farnese). Portraits were also incorporated into religious narratives, as in Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle painted for Giovanni Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, Florence (1486-90). of William Bedford c. 1783 Oil on canvasA woven cloth used as a support for painting. The best-quality canvas is made of linen; other materials used are cotton, hemp, and jute. It is now so familiar a material that the word 'canvas' has become almost a synonym for an oil painting, but it was not until around 1500 that it began to rival the wooden panel (which was more expensive and took longer to prepare) as the standard support for movable paintings (the transition came later in Northern Europe than in Italy). Canvas is not suitable for painting on until it has been coated with a ground, which isolates the fabric from the paint; otherwise it will absorb too much paint, only very rough effects will be obtainable, and parts of the fabric may be rotted by the pigments. It must also be made taut on a stretcher or by some other means., oval, 38 x 28 cm Private collection
This painting belongs to a set of eight portraits of members of the Bedford (originally Tubb) family of Acton, London: the father William Bedford (1744-1825) and his wife, and their children.
Hickey is amongst the most interesting and ambitious Irish painters of the 18th century, and he attempts many different genres. These small oval portraits enjoyed widespread popularity with middle-class sitters in the last quarter of the 18th century, and were the speciality of such painters as Francis Alleyne and Hugh Douglas Hamilton. Hickey seems to have painted quite a number of such portraits during his stay in Lisbon and shortly afterwards in London.
OTHER WORKS BY THOMAS HICKEY
- Portrait of Sophia Dashwood 1800
- Prince Azim-ud-Daula (1775-1819), Nawab of the Carnatic 1800
- Colonel Colin MacKenzie 1816
The archive catalogues no further works by this artist.
TRY SAME COLLECTION →CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rbdf9502d1fbced,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Portrait of William Bedford by HICKEY, Thomas},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/hickey-thomas-r5eea52bd1181b2/portrait-of-william-bedford-rbdf9502d1fbced},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.