The artist at work
The Chamber of Genius ©
Some of the earliest images of artists 'at work' take the form of St Luke painting a portrait of the Virgin Mary, or Apelles painting the courtesan Campaspe for Alexander the Great. Both were popular subjects for artists during the Renaissance, who sometimes introduced a subtle form of self-portraiture by incorporating their own features onto the figure of the artist.
With their rising status from the Renaissance onwards, it became increasingly common for artists to acknowledge their profession within self-portraits. While some chose to show themselves simply with a palette and brushes, others constructed a more elaborate narrative by including their wider studio environment. Occasionally the artist is conspicuously absent from the composition.
The change in surroundings that artists portrayed reflects the change in how they were taught, with academies across Europe in the eighteenth century providing a structured and multidisciplinary training, moving away from the traditional apprenticeship system. Artists also began to take some elements of their working practice outside. Images of artists in the landscape become increasingly common – something that would find full force in the nineteenth century with the aid of foldable easels and portable metal paint tubes.
Eduard Jakob von Steinle (1810-86)
Saint Luke painting the Virgin
Attributed to Guercino (Cento 1591-Bologna 1666)
St Luke painting the Virgin and Child
After Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688)
L'Academia Todesca della architectura, scultura e pittura: Oder Teutsche Acadamie (Nuremberg 1675-9).
Pietro de' Pietri (1663-1716)
Apelles painting Campaspe
Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827)
The Chamber of Genius
Circle of Benozzo Gozzoli (Florence c. 1421/22-Pistoia 1497)
A young man drawing, and a sleeping dog
Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560-Rome 1609)
A young man drawing
Antonio Maria Zanetti the Elder (1680-1767)
A self-portrait in carnival costume, sketching
Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878-1959)
‘The night cometh, when no man shall work’
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‘The night cometh, when no man shall work’
After Girolamo Savoldo (c. 1480-1548)
A Man in Armour
Emma Gaggiotti Richards (1825-1912)
Portrait of the artist
Anton Graff (1736-1813)
Self-Portrait
Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-73)
The Connoisseurs: Portrait of the Artist with two Dogs
Leopoldo Dumini (active 1893)
Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun (1755-1842)
Follower of Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510-1592)
A Painter's Self-Portrait
After John Vanderbank (1694-1739)
Michael Rysbrack
After Philippe Mercier (1689-1760)
A self-portrait of Philip Mercier
After Francis Cotes (1726-70)
Paul Sandby
After Benjamin West (1738-1820)
A self-portrait of Benjamin West
with his son
After Sir William Beechey (1753-1839)
David Wilkie
Johan Joseph Zoffany (Frankfurt 1733-London 1810)
The Academicians of the Royal Academy
Johan Joseph Zoffany (Frankfurt 1733-London 1810)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi
Roberts, William Patrick (1895-1980)
Co-operation
Paul Sandby (1731-1809)
A young woman painting
Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827)
The Sculptor
Soukop, Willi (1907-1995)
A sculptor in his studio
Previously attributed to Claude Gellée, called Le Lorrain (1604/5-82)
A Landscape with Ruins
Claude Gellée, called Le Lorrain (1604/5-82)
An artist drawing from a statue
Andrew Robertson (1777-1845)
Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841)
Johann Heinrich Ludwig Möller (1814-1885)
Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844).
Philip Jean (1755-1802)
Paul Sandby (1731-1809)
Giovanni Francesco Cipper (b. c. 1670 active 1705-36)
An Artist in his Studio
Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-73)
Pen, Brush and Chisel: The Studio of Sir Francis Chantrey
Samuel Drummond (1765-1844)
Self-portrait in the artist's studio painting The Death of Nelson
Joseph Parkin Mayall (1839-1906)
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet (1834-90)"> Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet (1834-90)
Herbert George Ponting (1870-1935)
Self-portrait with cinematographic camera
David Dawson (b. 1960)
The Queen sits for Lucian Freud
Alfred Emile Leopold Stevens (1823-1906)
