Daniel Gardner
Daniel Gardner (* 1750 in Kendal, † July 8th, 1805 in London) was a British painter who was best known for his portraiture.
Education and Career
Daniel Gardner was a student of George Romney. However, Gardner always said he would have learned not really much of Romney. 1767 Gardner moved to London, where he enrolled in 1770 at the Royal Academy of Arts. There he was taught by Johann Zoffany, Nathaniel Dance -Holland (1735-1811), Benjamin West, Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785) and Francesco Bartolozzi. 1771 Gardner won a silver medal at the Royal Academy of Arts. In the same year he exhibited a portrait of an old man at the Academy. Continued participation Gardner at major London art exhibitions, however, did. To 1773, he worked in the studio of Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds later works influenced Gardner visible, especially as concerned the pose and composition.
Gardner had soon made himself a name as a portraitist and made good money so he could buy in 1787 a stately home in Kendal itself. Gardner portrayed some of the most colorful personalities of his time, including Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, and Lord George Gordon.
Gardner was known for his pastel painting. However, in the last quarter of the 18th century, he turned increasingly to a Malmischtechnik that included both oil, gouache and pastel colors. This technique has also been adopted by painters such as Peter Romney, John Downman (1750-1824) and John James Masquerier ( 1778-1855 ). Larger portraits painted Gardner completely in oil. These are rare and are seldom offered on the art market.
Gardner signed his works rarely, which meant that his paintings were later, especially in the 19th century, often other more familiar to the general public fellow painters as Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough attributed. However, this is not surprising further when you consider that Gardner had worked with both Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.
Samuel Redgrave (1802-1876), British civil servant and author of texts and books on topics of art, wrote about Daniel Gardner:
" He had a nice perception of beauty and character, and composed with elegance. "
And the British poet William Hayley (1745-1820) wrote in his Essay on Painting, Epistle II:
Let candid Justice our attention lead To the soft crayon of the graceful Read; Nor, Gardner, Shall the Muse, in haste, forget Thy Taste and Ease; tho ' with a fond regret She pays, while here the Crayon 's pow'r she notes A sigh of homage to the Shade of Coates.
The President of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in Conwy, Sir Cuthbert Grundy C. (1846-1946), who along with his brother John Grundy RG († 1915), the Grundy Art Gallery founded in Blackpool, Daniel Gardner believed to be the most successful English pastel painting the 18th century. According to Sir Cuthbert Grundy C. Gardner surpassed both Joshua Reynolds in terms of liberal imagery and spontaneity as well as John Downman (1750-1824) in achieving finer and satterer colors.
Many of the jobs created by Gardner portraits were engraved on copper, among others, the engraver Thomas Watson (1743-1781), or reproduced by means of mezzotint. This would have been financially much more lucrative for Gardner as the production of the original.
Family
Daniel Gardner married on October 8, 1776 Miss Haward, the sister of the engraver Francis Haward. Miss Hawards first name was either Ann or Nancy. Gardner and his wife had two sons, only the elder son George survived (b. 1778). Gardner's wife died soon after the birth of her second son in 1781, which Gardner never overcame.
According to a report in the Gentleman's Magazine Gardner died on July 8, 1805 of liver failure in London. Also, the European Magazine and London Review reported Gardners death. Under the heading Monthly Obituary reads: Mr. Daniel Gardner, of Warwick -street, Golden -square, formerly an artist.
Character
Daniel Gardner was an eccentric. So it happened that he ordered the morning to persons who wanted to be portrayed by him by 5 clock to the studio. In the studio he allowed himself to portraying addition to any other persons. Also, he never showed his portraits before completion. In his studio he had a special easel with lockable door, where he could keep the not yet completed portraits from prying eyes of strangers under wraps.
Gardner is very little wrong with his painter colleagues who considered him strange and stingy. Only with John Constable, which he portrayed in 1796, he formed a friendship.
Exhibitions ( posthumously )
- Daniel Gardner, 12 pastels from the collection of Lady Strachey, Cottier Gallery, New York, 1913
- Daniel Gardner, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 1962
- Daniel Gardner, 1750-1805, of Kenwood House, London, 1972
Museums
Works by Daniel Gardner are in the collections of Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, National Portrait Gallery, London, Tate Britain and Montacute House.