Jonathan Richardson by Himself, Courtauld Gallery

The Courtauld Gallery celebrates the unveiling of its new Gilbert & Ildiko Drawings Gallery with a series of innovative, focused exhibitions that bring the spectacular collection into the spotlight. The latest treasures on view are a series of self-portraits by the famous 18^th century portrait painter Jonathan Richardson the Elder, who only began to work as an artist at the age of 61.
Never intended for public display, these honest and intimate drawings of the artist’s own face are so precise that they could be a documentary account of the master painter's features as well as a ubiquitous tale of human ageing. These meditative sketches are also a curious contrast to the heavier oil portraits that Jonathan Richardson the Elder produced for his patrons.
In the final section, the exhibition includes four drawings of Richardson’s eldest son, whom the artist was so close to that he called him ‘my other Self’. This show asks us to consider the nature of the ‘Self’, where the vulnerability of mortality lingers on every delicate page.