by Jon Lackman | 21 February 2008 | Baroque/Neoclassical, Museums
From the Telegraph:
During his lifetime, the Roman painter Pompeo Batoni was among the most celebrated artists in Europe, counting several popes among his patrons as well as Frederick the Great and Catherine of Russia.
But only two years after his death in 1787, Sir Joshua Reynolds predicted that Batoni’s name would quickly fall into oblivion – and he was absolutely right.
Throughout the 19th and for most of the 20th centuries few artists were more completely forgotten – or, if remembered, more thoroughly despised.
When the National Gallery of Wales bought one of his most impressive group portraits in 1947, it paid £200 – and that was mostly for the frame.
But, as with Reynolds, Batoni began to be rediscovered in the late 20th century, and is now having a sort of apotheosis in the form of a major exhibition at the National Gallery.
