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| Luigi Crespi Portrait of composer Filippo della Casa before 1779 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Thomas Gainsborough Portrait of Margaret Gainsborough, the Artist's Wife ca. 1777 oil on canvas Courtauld Gallery, London |
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| Jean-Baptiste Le Prince Peasant Woman in Holiday Garb ca. 1775 pastel Musée du Louvre |
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| Thomas Gainsborough Mary and Margaret, the Artist's Daughters (detail) ca. 1774 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Thomas Gainsborough Portrait of Gainsborough Dupont, the Artist's Nephew and Assistant 1773 oil on canvas National Trust, Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire |
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| Joshua Reynolds Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellamont in Robes of the Order of the Bath 1773 oil on canvas National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin |
Curators at the National Gallery of Ireland remark that, even though members of the Order of the Bath frequently chose to be represented in their ceremonial robes, the Coote portrait remains an unusual example because "the prescribed headgear was very rarely actually worn."
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| attributed to Jean-Honoré Fragonard Marguerite de Provence ca. 1769-76 drawing (print study for book illustration) Musée du Louvre |
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| attributed to Jean-Honoré Fragonard Jean, Ier duc de Bourbon ca. 1769-76 drawing (print study for book illustration) Musée du Louvre |
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| Giacomo Ceruti (il Pitocchetto) Portrait of a Contadina before 1767 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Christian Friedrich Zincke Portrait of a Young Woman before 1767 enamel miniature Musée du Louvre |
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| workshop of William Hoare Portrait of Christopher Anstey ca. 1766 oil on canvas Victoria Art Gallery, Bath |
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| Tilly Kettle Mrs Yates as Mandane in The Orphan of China by Arthur Murphy ca. 1765 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
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| Pietro Longhi Portrait of painter Francesco Guardi 1764 oil on canvas Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice |
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| Jean-Martial Frédou Louis-Joseph-Xavier de France, duc de Bourgogne 1761 pastel Château de Versailles |
The duc de Bourgogne was born in 1751, heir to the throne of France, but died of pulmonary tuberculosis at age nine in the same year this portrait was commissioned.
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| Thomas Gainsborough Mary and Margaret, the Artist's Daughters ca. 1760-61 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Giuseppe Bonito Portrait of the Infanta Maria Josefa ca. 1758-59 oil on canvas private collection |
"I look around for your paintings," said Sternbald, "but I cannot see them; after what you have said about art, I anticipate something great."
"You would be wrong to do so," answered the old man with some frustration, "for I was not born to be an artist; I am an unsuccessful painter who has not found his proper vocation. The desire seizes many and makes their life a misery. From my childhood on I sought only to live for art, but, unwilling, she turned away from me and refused to recognize me as her son. Although I continue to work, she has turned her back on me."
He opened a door and led the painter into a small room full of paintings. The majority were portraits, a few landscapes and yet fewer history paintings. Franz examined them with great attention, whilst the old man silently occupied himself with repairing a broken bird-cage. A severe and earnest character was reflected in each of the paintings; the features were clear, the drawing hard and definite, little attention was paid to ancillary features, but there was something in the faces which both attracted and repelled the gaze; in many of the portraits a happiness was expressed in the eyes which could be termed cruel, whilst others were curiously withdrawn and excited horror through their fearful countenance. Franz felt indescribably lonely, particularly when he looked out of the small window to the mountain and the woods outside and could not make out a single house or human being in the distant plain.
– Ludwig Tieck, from Franz Sternbald's Wanderings (1798), translated by Jason Gaiger (2000)