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| Thomas Lawrence Portrait of Samuel Lysons 1790 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Thomas Lawrence Portrait of William Linley 1789 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
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| attributed to John Astley Portrait of Sarah Harding before 1787 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
ECHO
Fond painter, why to me a face do'st lend?
To make me subject to the eye contend?
None my mysterious deity ere saw,
Much less my figure durst attempt to draw.
Daughter of tongue and aire, a voice, I am
Speeches that utter, from no mind that come
But other words I catch, as they decline,
And mocking them rehearse with like of mine.
My sole existence in the ear is found,
Who will my likeness paint, must paint the sound.
– epigram of Ausonius, translated anonymously (18th century)
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| John Hoppner Portrait of Louisa Lane, called 'Cecilia' 1782 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Charles Catton Self-portrait 1769 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Nathaniel Dance-Holland Portrait of Tobias Smollet ca. 1764 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
YOUTH AND AGE
To me the hours of youth are dear,
In transient light that flow:
But age is heavy, cold, and drear,
As winter's rocks of snow.
Already on my brows I feel
His grasp of ice and fangs of steel,
Dimming the visual radiance pale,
That soon eternal night shall veil.
Oh! not for all the gold that flings,
Through domes of Oriental kings,
Its mingled splendour, falsely bright,
Would I resign youth's lovelier light.
For whether wealth its path illume,
Or toil and poverty depress,
The days of youth are days of bloom,
And health, and hope, and loveliness.
Oh! were the ruthless demon, Age
Involved by Jove's tempestuous rage,
And fast and far to ruin driven,
Beyond the flaming bounds of heaven,
Or whelmed where arctic winter broods
O'er Ocean's frozen solitudes,
So never more to haunt again
The cities and the homes of men.
– from Heracles Furens by Euripides, translated by Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866)
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| Nathaniel Dance-Holland Portrait of the Pybus family ca. 1769 oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Allan Ramsay Lady in a pink silk dress ca. 1762 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
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| Allan Ramsay The artist's wife, Margaret Lindsay of Evelick 1758 oil on canvas National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh |
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| Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Anthony Chamier 1767 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Joseph Wright of Derby Portrait of Edward Becher Leacroft of Wirksworth ca. 1762-63 oil on canvas Cantor Center, Stanford University |
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| William Hogarth Portrait of David Garrick with his wife Eva Maria Veigel ca. 1757-64 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| George Stubbs Portrait of James Stanley 1755 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
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| Arthur Devis Portrait of a lady in a landscape 1750 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |