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Portrait of Capability Brown

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Portrait of Capability Brown
ArtistNathaniel Dance-Holland
Yearc.1769
TypeOil on canvas, portrait
Dimensions75.2 cm × 63.2 cm (29.6 in × 24.9 in)
LocationNational Portrait Gallery, London

Portrait of Capability Brown is a 1769 portrait painting by the English artist Nathaniel Dance-Holland depicting the landscape gardener Lancelot "Capability" Brown.[1][2] Brown was known for promoting the English landscape garden design in contrast to the previously dominant and more regimented French landscape garden style. Dance-Holland was a noted portraitist of the Georgian era and a founder member of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Today the work is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, having been acquired in 1989.[3] A version of the painting is at Burghley House in Cambridgeshire where Brown did work for the Earl of Exeter over many years.[4]

References

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Bibliography

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  • Brown, Jane. Lancelot 'Capability' Brown: The Omnipotent Magician, 1716-1783. Random House, 2012.
  • Wright, Christopher. British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Yale University Press, 2006.