Sir Andrew Fountaine

Jonathan Richardson, the elder · c. 1710

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

76.2 × 64 cm (30 × 25 3/16 in.); Framed: 97.2 × 84.7 × 6.4 cm (38 1/4 × 33 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Jonathan Richardson's portrait of Sir Andrew Fountaine presents the sitter with the quiet authority that defined English gentlemanly portraiture in the early Georgian period. Richardson was the foremost English-born portraitist of his generation, bridging the legacy of Godfrey Kneller's grand manner with a more thoughtful, introspective approach to likeness. Where many contemporaries flattered their subjects into near-abstraction, Richardson pursued something closer to character — his sitters settle into their own skin rather than performing for the viewer. His handling of fabric, light, and the architecture of the face reflects a painter who had studied the Old Masters seriously and written about them with equal rigour; his theoretical writings on painting were among the most influential of the age. This canvas, dated to around 1710, captures Fountaine at the height of his reputation as a collector and man of taste. Fountaine was a close friend of Jonathan Swift, who mentions him warmly in correspondence — a reminder that this portrait preserves the face of someone who moved through the sharpest literary and intellectual circles of his time. Our hand-painted oil reproduction carefully honours Richardson's restrained palette, precise characterisation, and composed tonal modelling, bringing an eighteenth-century masterwork into a form you can live with every day.