Thomas Worlidge - The English Rembrandt.
Frequently called the English Rembrandt, Thomas Worlidge
(1700 – 1766), in his own day, was an artist of considerable status and
international renown, yet by the early twentieth century he had been pretty
well forgotten. However, a 1983
exhibition ‘Rembrandt in Eighteenth – Century England’ illuminated Worlidge as
the subject of scholarly research, providing greater detail of his life and
career, which had previously been neglected by other commentators. A more
recent re-awakening of interest in Worlidge accompanies the growing popularity
of Eighteenth – Century peintre – gravuers in general, and a return to critical
favour of the genre.
Born in Peterborough, Worlidge was the son of an eminent
solicitor at law. At a young age, his mother had him instructed in drawing and
apprenticed him to Genoese painter Allessandro Grimaldi, ‘famous for designing
chandeliers and etching in gold or glass’. Grimaldi put Worlidge under the care
of Louis – Philippe Boitard, ‘a disciple of the great La-Fage’ and with
Boitard, Worlidge travelled in Holland and Flanders.
Worlidge’s principal occupation was as a portrait painter usually in pencil and in miniature. He does not appear to have begun to publish etchings until the early 1750s when a series of newspaper advertisements of portraits of notable personalities such as Garrick (no.42) and the King (no.23) drew attention to his work. In 1754 he had published his own portrait in Rembrandt costume, as a frontispiece to his works, ‘Six new etchings’. His carefully cultivated, and growing reputation as the English Rembrandt was evidently already in place. In December 1757, Worlidge issued proposals for his most ambitious and expensive works, an imitation of Rembrandt’s ‘Hundred Guilder’ print, offered to subscribers for 2 guineas, and to non-subscribers for 3. His prices were generally very high for the period and reflect the esteem in which his work was held by contemporaries, a trait which only grew stronger as his career progressed.
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| An unfinished self portrait. Ref: 32776 |
Worlidge’s career spanned the Rembrandt craze of the mid
Eighteenth – Century and his enthusiasm for the work of Rembrandt,
which was shared by a number of influential artists, was the dominant force in
his life and work. At the time, Rembrandt’s prints were being imported into
England and sold for huge sums of money, while his English contemporaries
established their virtuosity by imitating the works of the Dutch master, and
even in the case of William Baillie, by re-working his plates.
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| Detail showing Worlidge drawing the crowd from "The Oxford Installation of 1759". |
Worlidge’s principal occupation was as a portrait painter usually in pencil and in miniature. He does not appear to have begun to publish etchings until the early 1750s when a series of newspaper advertisements of portraits of notable personalities such as Garrick (no.42) and the King (no.23) drew attention to his work. In 1754 he had published his own portrait in Rembrandt costume, as a frontispiece to his works, ‘Six new etchings’. His carefully cultivated, and growing reputation as the English Rembrandt was evidently already in place. In December 1757, Worlidge issued proposals for his most ambitious and expensive works, an imitation of Rembrandt’s ‘Hundred Guilder’ print, offered to subscribers for 2 guineas, and to non-subscribers for 3. His prices were generally very high for the period and reflect the esteem in which his work was held by contemporaries, a trait which only grew stronger as his career progressed.
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| Thomas Worlidge's copy of Rembrandt's famous 'hundred guilder print'. Ref: 32719 |
The comprehensive collection from our latest listing
includes several outstanding and unusual impressions amongst a wide range of examples
printed during Worlidge’s lifetime, or soon after his death. They reflect both
the importance and popularity of one of England’s least remembered, yet most
important artists of the Eighteenth – Century.
Our full collection of Thomas Worlidge prints can be found here
