The Rev. William Atkinson, wearing a broad-brimmed hat
George Romney British
Sitter The Reverend William Atkinson British
Not on view
William Atkinson was a curate at Selside, a parish near Kendal in Cumbria where Romney lived between 1757 and 1762. Naturally talented, largely self-taught, and here near the start of his career, the artist would have been the portraitist of choice for gentry in that northern county. His paintings of that period favored broad effects, and the simple graphite strokes used here to describe the coat, with its wide old-fashioned collar and cuffs, are similar in character. More detail was used for the face and the right hand, which holds a walking stick. In a related oil painting, Romney showed Atkinson indoors without hat and cane, leaning on a pile of books.
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