Figure 2.4 Benjamin West: The Death of General Wolfe (1727–1759), oil on panel, replica c. 1771,
Private collection (original, 152 × 214 cm, in National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).
Source: Phillips, Fine Art Auctioneers, New York, USA/Bridgeman Images.Portraiture
Portraiture was the dominant genre of eighteenthcentury art, particularly in Britain and America. From
the 1780s, portraits dominated public exhibitions in Britain (Pointon, 1993, 39; Simon, 1987, 6; Solkin,
2001, 43). They often provided a more secure form of income for artists than history painting (Retford,
2011, 101) or landscapes, pastel portraits being particularly quick to produce and requiring less
expensive materials. In the second half of the century, and in the more highly regulated art world of Paris,
various Directors of Public Buildings stepped in to regulate the market in portraiture, which was
perceived as one of the causes of the decline of interest in the history genre. In his Reflections on Some
Causes of the Present State of Painting in France, La Font de Saint Yenne complained that many history
painters were driven for financial reasons to portraiture. The critic’s views show more than a little
snobbery in response to people of “middling” social status joining their social superiors in acquiring