George Romney was a provincial painter from the North of England who, moving to London, went on to become one of the foremost exemplars of the Grand Manner in portraiture. Unfortunately, this otherwise excellent account of his life and work is flawed by the author's unwillingness to appreciate Romney's art on the artist's own terms. In the introductory essay, Mr.Kidson delves into issues of "academic" versus "modern" that seem to belong to the field of French art of a much later time period, rather than to the place and times in which Romney himself was actually working. In his entries accompanying the (very beautiful) color plates, he seems more appreciative of the homely, over-detailed style of Romney's early years, than of the poetic and painterly style Romney later developed. I think that Romney, whose "fancy portraits" of the actress and artist's model Emma Hart are some of the most moving and delightful portraits even painted, deserves better than this. Nonetheless, the wealth of biographical information, and the many many color reproductions, make ths attractively produced book worth having.
