A Conversation (The Artist's Brothers Peter and James Romney)
Date:
1766
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
43 1/2 x 34 1/2 inches (110.5 x 87.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.537
Gallery Label:
Exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1766, this portrait shows George Romney’s brothers Peter and James deep in conversation. The objects around them suggest that they are discussing competing approaches to the art of painting. Peter, balancing a drawing board on his knee, points to the diagrams in front of him and seems to make a case for the geometrical principles of design. James holds under his right arm a portfolio and gestures with his left hand toward a classical bust—perhaps advocating that works of art should be informed by artistic precedent. By staging the debate in this way, the artist sought to announce his own theoretical sophistication, as well as that of his siblings. The brothers went on to live very different lives: James pursued a long career in the East India Company, but Peter, a portraitist, was troubled by debt and alcoholism, dying young. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
