The eighteenth century was a golden age of British portraiture, with artistic giants such as Sir Thomas Lawrence, George Romney and Sir Martin Archer Shee defining the era through their grand depictions of the country's rich and famous. Looking back to the techniques and compositions of the old masters who had come before them, they created enduring images which immediately evoke the spirit of their times. 

Lost in melancholy reverie, captured in idyllic pastoral landscapes, or discovered in a tender maternal embrace, the sitters in these portaits capture the power and beauty of a superlative era of British painting.