Biography

Irish portrait painter, active from 1788 in London. There he became second only to Thomas Lawrence as the leading society portraitist, and in 1830 he succeeded him as President of the Royal Academy, which he guided through a difficult period. Examples of his work - which in style lies between the bravura of Lawrence and the precision of West - are in the National Portrait Gallery, London. His Rhymes on Art (1805), urging the claims of art on national support, enjoyed a considerable popularity. He also published Elements of Art (1809).