William Hoare of Bath RA Study of a Pair of Hands

An original 18th-century chalk drawing, William Hoare of Bath RA, Study of a Pair of Hands.

This intimate quick study gives an insight into the preparatory workings of one of the most fashionable portraitists of the mid-18th century and a founding member of the Royal Academy, with his contemporaries Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.

William Hoare 'of Bath' is particularly known for his fine society portraits in pastel. Like his contemporaries Arthur Pond and George Knapton, Hoare trained in Italy in oil painting, but recognised the new commercial potential in pastel portraiture. Pastels were both cheap and quick to produce and therefore reasonably priced and well within the means of a newly affluent middle class.

Whilst it has been suggested that Hoare settled in Bath as a result of his marriage to Elizabeth Barker who had connections there, he possibly moved to the town in 1738 prior to his marriage, realising that the town was an almost untapped and ever growing market. By the late 1740s he was living 'in a handsome, genteel manner' and was described as having had 'great employment at Bath by most or many people of distinction for many years'. Hoare obtained numerous commissions from some of the leading social and political figures of the day, including George Frederic Handel, Robert Walpole and William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.

By way of contrast to his formal portraiture, Hoare executed numerous delightful and informal drawings of his family which are loosely executed on small sheets of paper and often in red chalk with pencil. The present drawing is possibly one such study. A similar treatment of hands with quill pen can be seen in Hoare's well-known group portrait of 1742, Dr Oliver and Mr Peirce examining Patients (Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath).

Provenance: From the sale of the late Charles Ford esq. 1871. January.

In red and white chalk. On buff-coloured laid paper tipped on to backing paper.