THE SOCIETY PORTRAIT, Paintings, Prestige and the Pursuit of Elegance

 THE SOCIETY PORTRAIT, Paintings, Prestige and the Pursuit of Elegance

Gabriel Badea-Päun
Foreword by Richard Ormond

At the turn of the nineteenth century, society portraiture was on the brink of an extraordinary renaissance. Never in the history of painting has portraiture revealed such a glittering array of talents and rich variety of styles as it did during this period of profound social upheaval and change.

This superb book opens at that moment and closes as the genre struggled to survive and evolve in the post-war era. The gallery of portraits collected here contains both celebrated and less well-known images, but all capture the spirit of their age, throwing the society that produced them into sharp relief.

Set against an extravagant backdrop of French châteaux, English country houses, American mansions and Russian palaces, The Society Portrait exudes the elegance of the world of high society and breathes life into it through insights into the personalities of both the artists and their patrons.

This lavish collection of portraits by the great masters of the genre – David, Ingres, Winterhalter, Whistler, Millais, Manet, Sargent, Boldini, De Lempicka and Dalí among them – will leave you pondering the very nature of the portrait painter’s art.

Richard Ormond is Honorary Director of the National Maritime Museum, London, and author of numerous works on Victorian art. He is also the author of the complete catalogue raisonné of the works of Sir John Singer Sargent. Gabriel Badea-Päun holds a doctorate in the history of art from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, and is the author of a number of articles on society portraits of the late nineteenth century.