Lieutenant General Philip Honywood
Artist
Thomas Gainsborough
(British, 1727 - 1788)
Date1765
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions128 15/16 x 118 1/4 in. (327.5 x 300.4 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN390
Gainsborough, one of the foremost artists of his day, was renowned for both his portraits and his landscape paintings. Although Honywood had long retired from the army by the time this work was made, he is shown here mounted, in full military attire, with raised sword. The painting’s enormous scale—it is apparently Gainsborough’s largest makes the sitter seem even more imposing. Mitigating that effect, however, is the artist’s famously delicate, quick brushwork, which lightens the tone and immortalizes the vivacity and vigor of both man and steed.
On View
On view
Velázquez (Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez)
c. 1628–29, reworked c. 1631