Portrait Of A Mother And Child, English School, Regency C. 1815–1820, Signed James Green

Portrait of a Mother and Child, English School, Regency c. 1815–1820, Signed James Green

James Green (Leytonstone, 1771 – Bath, 1834)
Portrait of a Mother and Child
English School, Regency period, circa 1815–1820
Oil on canvas, signed “Js Green” lower left.

Dimensions:
Canvas: 93 × 70.5 cm (36.6 × 27.8 in.)
Framed: 109 × 88 cm (42.9 × 34.6 in.)

Condition:
Original canvas, unlined, with professional reinforcement confined to the margins (strip-lining). Older restorations and age-related craquelure.
Presented in an elegant 20th-century gilt frame.

This landscape portrait, with the figures set against a wooded horizon and an expansive cloudy sky, belongs to the tradition of British grand portraiture inherited from the 18th century. This lineage is particularly significant in Green’s work: admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in 1791, he was noticed by Sir Joshua Reynolds and made numerous copies of Reynolds’s portraits, directly absorbing the master’s models.

The circa 1815–1820 dating is supported by the costume. The dark dress is enlivened by a broad red shawl, while a white cap and, most notably, a striking pleated muslin collar arranged as a ruff frame the sitter’s face. These elements, together with the short curls across the forehead, are characteristic of the historicising taste of the late Regency period. The child wears a simple white dress consistent with children’s clothing of the period.

Green worked principally as a portrait painter in London and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy. Several of his portraits are now held by the National Portrait Gallery, London, while the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, holds his 1818 Portrait of Benjamin West.