Thomas Hudson (1701-1779) was born in Devon, and came to
be a widely known English portrait painter, the student of Jonathan Richardson whose
daughter he married. From the mid 1740s to the mid 1750s, he was the leading fashionable
portrait painter in London, rivalled only by Ramsay. Hudson went into semi-retirement in
the late 1750s , when his former pupil Joshua Reynolds was rising rapidly in fame and
reputation. His studio produced a considerable body of work, with help from specialist
assistants including Joseph van Aken. Hudson has been described by Sir Ellis Waterhouse as
"the last of the conscienceless artists, of whom Lely was the first in England, and
who turned out portraits to standard patterns and executed comparatively little of the
work themselves." Nevertheless, each of his portraits possess great charm and
individuality, and considerable finesse in style.
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