Musée du Luxembourg--The Golden Age of English Painting

The Musée du Luxembourg is located in Marie de Medici's palace at Luxembourg Gardens. Monday I went to see L'Âge d'Or de la Peinture Anglaise de Reynolds à Turner. It included paintings from the reign of King George III (1760-1820).

During the 1760s to 1780s, Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough were the greatest portraitists in England and both received royal commissions. Critics at the time set them in opposition to each other and their rivalry became a great public spectacle.

Self Portrait by Joshua Reynolds

Thomas Gainsborough by Johan Zoffany

You can see in the two monumental portraits below how they invited comparison to each other. These portraits were displayed across from each other at the museum.

The Honorable Miss Monckton
by Joshua Reynolds

Lady Bate-Dudley
by Thomas Gainsborough

Unlike Reynolds, Gainsborough worked alone. His only real student and assistant was his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont. When Thomas Gainsborough was sick and dying, this is the painting he chose to place in his bedroom for visitors to see.

Gainsborough Dupont
by Thomas Gainsborough

Both Turner and Gainsborough were founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts and remained rivals who respected each other.

I thought this painting of a boy reading was sweet. It is part portrait and part genre scene.

Boy Reading by Ramsay Richard Reinagle

Joshua Reynolds painted the aristocratic Crewe children in costume. The daughter is holding a deep basket that young strawberry sellers in the 18th century would carry on the streets of London. The son is dressed as Henry VIII and strikes a pose similar to Hans Holbein's famous painting of Henry VIII.

Miss Crewe
by Joshua Reynolds

Master Crewe as Henry VIII
by Joshua Reynolds

The portrait of the son was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776 and is considered one of the most admired paintings of Reynolds. Don't you just want to pinch his red cheeks?
Sadly, the painting of the daughter was not totally finished because she died. The landscape is only sketched out and her right arm is not totally finished. The premature death of Miss Crewe is probably why Reynolds gave the painting as a gift to her parents.