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| Hyacinthe Rigaud Portrait of Swiss diplomat Lucas Schaub 1722 oil on canvas Kunstmuseum, Basel |
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| Joseph Highmore Portrait of a Woman ca. 1730-35 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Allan Ramsay Portrait of Miss Craigie 1741 oil on canvas Denver Art Museum |
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| Georg Friedrich Schmidt Portrait of Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn 1745 pastel on paper Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| William Hogarth Portrait of the Honourable John Hamilton 1746 oil on canvas Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh |
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| Andrea Soldi Portrait of architect James Gibbs ca. 1750 oil on canvas Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh |
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| Jean-Marc Nattier Portrait of Madame de La Porte 1754 oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
Above and below: two contemporaries (an ocean apart) with conflicting ideals of elegance, French and American.
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| Jeremiah Theus Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Lynch 1755 oil on canvas Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
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| Alexander Roslin Portrait of Baron Thure Leonard Klinckowström 1758 oil on canvas Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki |
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| Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Arabella Penelope Reynolds 1758 oil on canvas Portland Art Museum, Oregon |
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| Joseph Wright of Derby Portrait of a Woman ca. 1760 oil on canvas Saint Louis Art Museum |
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| Thomas Gainsborough Portrait of Joshua Grigby ca. 1760-65 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Jean-Baptiste Perronneau Portrait of a Woman 1768 oil on canvas North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh |
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| Anonymous British Maker Riding Habit ca. 1770 wool twill Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto |
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| George Romney Portrait of Miss Kirkpatrick ca. 1772 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Antoine Vestier Portrait of a Cellist 1788 oil on canvas Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona |
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| Pierre-Étienne Lesueur Portrait of painter Louis Thomassin 1798 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau |
Inviting a Friend to Supper
To night, grave sir, both my poore house, and I
Doe equally desire your companie:
Not that we thinke us worthy such a ghest,
But that your worth will dignifie our feast,
With those that come; whose grace may make that seeme
Something, which, else, could hope for no esteeme.
It is the faire acceptance, Sir, creates
The entertaynment perfect: not the cates.
Yet shall you have, to rectifie your palate,
An olive, capers, or some better sallade
Ushring the mutton; with a short-leg'd hen,
If we can get her, full of egs, and then,
Limons, and wine for sauce: to these, a coney
Is not to be despair'd of, for our money;
And, though fowle, now, be scarce, yet there are clarkes,
The skie not falling, thinke we may have larkes.
Ile tell you of more, and lye, so you will come;
Of partrich, pheasant, wood-cock, of which some
May yet be there; and godwit, if we can:
Knat, raile, and ruffle too. How so ere, my man
Shall reade a piece of Virgil, Tacitus,
Livie, or of some better booke to us,
Of which wee'll speake our minds, amidst our meate;
And Ile professe no verses to repeate:
To this, if ought appeare, which I not know of,
That will the pastrie, not my paper, show of.
Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will bee;
But that, which most doth take my Muse, and mee,
Is a pure cup of rich Canary-wine,
Which is the Mermaids, now, but shall be mine:
Of which had Horace, or Anacreon tasted,
Their lives, as doe their lines, till now had lasted.
Tabacco, Nectar, or the Thespian spring,
Are all but Luthers beere, to this I sing.
Of this we will sup free, but moderately,
And we will have no Pooly, or Parrot by;
Nor shall our cups make any guiltie men;
But, at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met. No simple word
That shall be utter'd at our mirthfull boord,
Shall make us sad next morning: or affright
The libertie, that wee'll enjoy tonight.
– Martial (AD 40-104), as adapted and translated by Ben Jonson (1616)



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