“Inside the MFAH” provides perspectives, conversations, and opinions from insiders at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Posts Tagged portrait, page 1
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30 AugThu / 2012
![](/site_media/cache/05/e5/05e55deaffc6f2a2cb4207cced95967f.jpg "Joshua Reynolds, Kitty Fisher as "Cleopatra" Dissolving the Pearl, 1759, oil on canvas, Kenwood House, English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest, 1927. (Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts)")
Kitty Fisher may have been the most scrutinized beauty featured in the magnificent Kenwood House portraits. She maintained a regular spot in the social spotlight thanks to her well-known affairs with wealthy men. Artists were no exception, and Sir Joshua Reynolds was one of her greatest admirers. . . .
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03 AugFri / 2012
![](/site_media/cache/f9/54/f95404d2a2cb518878ca07b6ee4ece78.jpg "John Hoppner, Mrs. Jordan as "Viola," c. 1785–92, oil on canvas, Kenwood House, English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest, 1927 (88028789)")
Mrs. Jordan was the leading comic actress of Georgian England, and in this portrait by English artist John Hoppner, she is painted in her role as Viola from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man so she can be a page for the Duke of Orsino.
Mrs. Jordan (1761–1816) led a remarkable life and has been the subject of many biographies. . .
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23 JulMon / 2012
The subjects of portraits by English painter Thomas Gainsborough were more than just pretty faces. John Joseph Merlin, for instance, was an ingenious inventor and maker of musical instruments, and he’s now known as the father of the roller skate. . . .
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27 JunWed / 2012
The name Guinness may first have become famous because of the world-renowned brewery, but today the name might be just as recognizable to fashion aficionados as it is to beer drinkers. That’s thanks to fashion icon Daphne Guinness . . .
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22 JunFri / 2012
Who’s that cover girl starring on the Kenwood House exhibition catalogue? None other than the indisputably beautiful Mary, Countess Howe. Putting her best (elegantly dressed) foot forward in her full-length portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, she stands proudly in a dress that would have been at the height of fashion in the mid-1700s. Her pale complexion and arsenal of expensive accessories also attest to her aristocratic status.
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