Portrait of Edmund Rodney Pollesfen Bastard (1825-1856)

Sir William C. Ross · c. 1830

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

Framed: 11.8 × 7 cm (4 5/8 × 2 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

This intimate portrait captures a young Edmund Rodney Pollesfen Bastard at around five years old, rendered with the soft luminosity that defined Sir William Charles Ross at the height of his powers. Ross was the pre-eminent British portrait miniaturist of the Victorian era, appointed Miniature Painter to Queen Victoria in 1837 and later knighted for his contributions to the art. Though he worked primarily in watercolour on ivory for his miniatures, his oil portraits share the same hallmarks: a gentle, almost sculptural handling of light on the face, warm flesh tones, and a directness of gaze that invites the viewer into a private moment. In this early childhood portrait, painted when the sitter was barely out of infancy, that quality of intimate attention is especially pronounced. Ross trained under George Engleheart and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, building a clientele that stretched across British aristocracy and the royal household itself. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is executed by a professional artist working from high-resolution archival imagery of the original held at the Art Institute of Chicago, preserving the delicate tonal transitions and warm palette that make this portrait so quietly compelling — a faithful tribute to one of the Victorian era's most refined portraitists.