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View at the museum ↗George Banks
Joseph Gottc. 1828
- Attribution
- Joseph Gott (English, 1786–1860)
- Medium
- Terracotta
- Physical dimensions
- 53 × 58.5 × 20.6 cm (21 × 23 × 8 1/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Constance T. and Donald W. Patterson through the Old Masters Society
Museum metadata is available under CC0. Image availability and rights are separate; consult the source record.
Source rights statement: Public domain
View the museum record ↗From the museum
This highly finished terracotta was modeled by Joseph Gott in preparation for a marble portrait of his patron George Banks, a wealthy Yorkshire cloth merchant. Banks sits on a klismos, a style of ancient Greek chair revived by Neoclassical artists during the late 18th century. His pose emulates sculptures from antiquity that depict seated figures resting on one arm with one leg forward. Despite this reference to the idealized grandeur of ancient sculpture, the portrait conveys a modern sense of ease and intimacy. Dressed in contemporary garb, Banks seems to have just turned towards the viewer, his lips slightly parted as if he is about to speak.
Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0