John Partridge (artist)

File:William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.jpg, 1844.]]

Partridge studied with the portrait painter Thomas Phillips from 1814; he exhibited his first painting, 'Miss Foote in the Character of Lucilla' at the Royal Academy in 1815.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/875354 Ormond R. (1967) John Partridge and the Fine Arts Commissioners Burlington Magazine 109: 397–403] (accessed 19 August 2007) He moved to London the same year, entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1816. At first he lived in Marylebone, then a popular neighbourhood with artists.[http://www.museumnetwork.com/features/05_21_01highlightCreative.asp Museum Network: Creative Quarters: The Art World in London 1700 to 2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928115320/http://www.museumnetwork.com/features/05_21_01highlightCreative.asp |date=28 September 2007 }} (accessed 19 August 2007)[http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/creative/artistloc/1850/1850_jpartridge.html Museum of London: John Partridge (1790–1872)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927190129/http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/creative/artistloc/1850/1850_jpartridge.html |date=27 September 2007 }} (accessed 19 August 2007) In 1820, he married his cousin Clementina Sarah Campbell; she featured in his painting 'The artist and his family in his house at 21 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square' (c. 1828–35). From 1823 to 1827, he lived in Italy, staying in Florence, Venice, and Rome. During his time there, his focus widened from pure portraits; he sketched landscapes and made copies of Renaissance masters including Correggio, Raphael, Rubens, Tintoretto and Titian. During his stay in Italy, he gained several wealthy patrons. In 1828, soon after his return from Rome, he left Marylebone for the more upper class Brook Street, off Grosvenor Square, where many of his sitters resided.

The move seems to have paid off: his career blossomed. Between 1827 and 1845, he painted over two hundred portraits, earning him £2762 in 1841 alone. Many were of prestigious sitters, including an 1836 commission from Leopold I of Belgium, which led two years later to the patronage of Queen Victoria. He painted several successful portraits of the Queen and of Prince Albert,[http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/maker.asp?maker=PARTRIDGEJ&row=0 The Royal Collection: John Partridge] (accessed 19 August 2007) and in 1843, he became a 'portrait painter-extraordinary' to the Queen.{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Partridge, John Bernard |volume=20 |page=876}} Queen Victoria's attentions were, however, to prove fickle, and the 1842 arrival of Franz Xaver Winterhalter, soon the new favourite, cut short Partridge's career as a royal portraitist.

In 1846, Partridge made the decision never to exhibit again at the Royal Academy, after two of his portraits were placed insultingly badly, probably in consequence of a dispute more than a decade earlier with fellow artist and Royal Academician, Ramsay Richard Reinagle, over Partridge altering one of Reinagle's pictures for the owner. He did not change his mind even when, two years later, Reinagle was discredited for claiming another artist's work as his own.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23353 Corley TAB. 'Reinagle, Ramsay Richard (1775–1862)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press; 2004)] (accessed 23 August 2007)

Although Partridge set up a gallery in his studio to exhibit his works, commissions plummeted, with only 76 portraits in the period from 1845 to 1865, and his income inevitably suffered. Towards the end of his life, Partridge railed against this injustice in a pamphlet, On the Constitution and Management of the Royal Academy (1864), writing that he had been "driven from the position I held in public estimation and employment ... as the penalty for maintaining any degree of self-respect and independent feeling."

Partridge died in London in 1872. He had earlier donated some of his unsold paintings to the National Portrait Gallery, where many are still on display.[http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp05651&role=art National Portrait Gallery: John Partridge (1790–1872), Portrait painter] (accessed 19 August 2007)

Partridge portrayed many of the notable people of the day, with over three hundred portraits in total. In addition to the royal subjects previously mentioned, he painted the prime minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, and many other political or noble figures including Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Frederick Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, Maharaja Duleep Singh, George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland and Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston. Other subjects included members of the artistic community such as Daniel Asher Alexander, Robert Trewick Bone, John James Chalon, William Dyce, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, John Gibson, Charles Robert Leslie, Joseph Severn and Thomas Uwins, and prominent scientists such as Joseph Hodgson and James Watt.[http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E000190b.htm Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online: Hodgson, Joseph (1788–1869)] (accessed 19 August 2007)[http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSA03623&t=1&urltp=story.php?id=TGSCH03&PHPSESSID=73110930d7bd6dc32b The Glasgow Story: James Watt: Mitchell Library, Glasgow Collection] (accessed 19 August 2007)

He worked mainly in oil on canvas; several of his paintings were subsequently engraved. His early style was significantly influenced by his teacher Thomas Phillips, who in turn was influenced by Sir Thomas Lawrence.

His other works encompassed landscapes, often depicting Italy, paintings with literary themes, and studies, often of children. The majority were exhibited at the British Institution. Usually small, they included numerous pencil sketches, sometimes incorporating an ink or watercolour wash.

File:Gaetano Crivelli by John Partridge.jpg|Gaetano Crivelli, 1825

File:Charles Robert Leslie by John Partridge.jpg|Charles Robert Leslie, 1836

File:Queen Victoria - Partridge 1840.jpg|Queen Victoria, 1840

File:John Partridge (1790-1872) - Prince Albert (1819-1861) - RCIN 403021 - Royal Collection.jpg|Prince Albert, 1840

File:Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston by John Partridge.jpg|Portrait of Lord Palmerston, c.1845

File:Study for 'The Fine Arts Commissioners, 1846 by John Partridge.jpg|The Fine Arts Commissioners, 1846

File:Frederick James Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne by John Partridge.jpg|Frederick Lamb, 3rd Viscount Melbourne, 1846

Image:Joseph Hodgson (1848).jpg|Joseph Hodgson, 1848

File:Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay by John Partridge.jpg|Thomas Babington Macaulay, c.1849

Links to online representations are given where available.

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927190129/http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/creative/artistloc/1850/1850_jpartridge.html 'The artist and his family in his house at 21 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square' (c. 1828–35)]
• 'Satan' (1829)
• 'L'allegrezza' (1833)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201244/http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp05651&rNo=24&role=art 'John Partridge' (c. 1838)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203103/http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?maker=PARTRIDGEJ&object=403022&row=0 'Queen Victoria' (1840)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927202902/http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/object.asp?maker=PARTRIDGEJ&object=403021&row=1 'Prince Albert' (1841)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930204805/http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp05651&rNo=26&role=art 'William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne' (1844)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930204123/http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp05651&rNo=27&role=art 'Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston' (1844–5)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930202326/http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp05651&rNo=28&role=art 'The Fine Arts Commissioners, 1846' (c. 1846–53)]

{{reflist}}

• {{Art UK bio}}
• {{FadedPage|id=Partridge, John|name=John Partridge (illustrator)|author=yes}}

{{commons category|John Partridge}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Partridge, John}}

Category:1789 births

Category:1872 deaths

Category:19th-century Scottish painters

Category:Scottish male painters

Category:British portrait painters

Category:Artists from Glasgow

Category:19th-century Scottish male artists