John Newton

Thomas Hudson · c. 1757–60

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

127 × 101.6 cm (50 × 40 in.); Framed: 145.5 × 120.3 × 6.4 cm (57 1/4 × 47 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Thomas Hudson's portrait of John Newton captures the man at a pivotal moment — years after a storm at sea had shaken his faith into being, but before the world knew him as the author of "Amazing Grace." Hudson was the foremost portrait painter in England during the mid-eighteenth century, the dominant figure in London society portraiture before Reynolds eclipsed him. Trained under Jonathan Richardson, he developed a composed, authoritative style — sober palettes, careful attention to fabric and texture, and a talent for conveying quiet gravity in his sitters. His likenesses were sought by merchants, clergy, and aristocracy alike, and Newton, already moving in serious evangelical circles, was a fitting subject for his measured brushwork. Newton sat for Hudson sometime around 1757 to 1760, when he was working as a tide surveyor at Liverpool and deepening his correspondence with George Whitefield and other reformers — a portrait made on the threshold of a remarkable second life. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is made to order on canvas, faithfully replicating Hudson's restrained palette and the particular stillness he gave his sitter, so the painting arrives with the same quiet authority as the original held at the Art Institute of Chicago.