Pompeo Batoni is the prince of painters in eighteenth-century Rome. His works are on view from October 21, 2007 to January 27, 2008 at Houston Museum .
Pompeo Batoni was the most celebrated painter in Rome in his day. The American painter Benjamin West, who lived in Italy in 1760—63, said, "When I went to Rome, the Italian artists of that day thought of nothing, looked at nothing, but the work of Pompeo Batoni." For nearly half a century Batoni recorded the visits to Rome of international travelers on the Grand Tour in portraits that remain among the most memorable artistic accomplishments of the period. Equally gifted as a history painter, his religious and mythological works were eagerly acquired by the greatest patrons and collectors in Britain and on the Continent.
The exhibition, which marks the tercentenary of the painter´s birth, will be the first comprehensive presentation of Batoni´s paintings in forty years, providing a vivid appreciation of the artistic achievement of "Italy´s Last Old Master" through the finest examples available in public and private collections in Europe and America. Batoni´s status as Rome´s most sought-after painter for both portraits and history paintings is underscored by works never previously publicly exhibited, as well as newly discovered and recently cleaned paintings.
The exhibition will go to the National Gallery, London, from February 20 to May 18, 2008.
The picture shows Pompeo Batoni, Edward Dering, later 6th Bt., 1758-59, Private collection; on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago. -- www.mfah.org
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