William Crosfield
Louis Pierre Spindler 1800 - 1889
Summary
The sitter is William Crosfield (1805–1881), a successful Liverpool merchant. Formerly a Quaker, later a Congregationalist, he was also a notable philanthropist. He is shown wearing smart period dress, consisting of a white shirt, black jacket and black cravat, against a plain background with a suggestion of red drapery to the right. Crosfield has a steady, direct gaze and his right hand is inside the breast of his jacket. The ‘hidden hand', which has its origins in classical rhetoric, is a gesture that appears frequently in 18th and 19th century European and British portraiture and photographic portraits, denoting calm and decisive leadership, or simply good breeding. The right hand in the jacket is more usual, but the left appears there too. Jacques-Louis David's portraits of Napoleon I helped to establish the convention firmly in France. Nadar's portrait of Eugène Delacroix is a well-known example of its use in photography. Spindler was born in 1800 in Huningue, Haut-Rhin, now a northern suburb of Basel on the French side of the border. He exhibited portraits and genre scenes at the Paris Salon in the 1830s, giving an address in the Sorbonne quarter of Paris. His genre scenes included subjects inspired by Lamartine and Sir Walter Scott. Spindler exhibited under the title ‘M. Spindler' (Monsieur Spindler) at the Royal Manchester Institution from 1839 to 1845, giving an address in Hulme. During this time he painted a pendant portrait of William's wife, Eliza Crosfield, which is also in the collection of Manchester Art Galleries, inv. no. 1971.63.
Object Name
William Crosfield
Creators Name
Date Created
1843
Dimensions
framed: 104.5cm x 92.7cm
unframed: 77cm x 64cm
accession number
1971.62
Place of creation
England
Support
canvas
Medium
oil paint
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