1769 -1850 · Portrait, literature and Royal Academy

The portraits of Anthony Gilbert Storer and Anthony Morris Storer combine British elegance and psychological presence. Shee models faces gently, while using costume, pose and background to distinguish each identity.

Born in Dublin in 1769 and died in 1850, Martin Archer Shee trained at the Dublin Society before moving to London in 1788. After starting out as an engraver, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy in 1790 and developed a career as a portrait painter with political, military, literary and social elites. Elected academician in 1805, he never separated practice from public debate. His poem Rhymes on Art, published in 1800, called for national support for the arts and contributed to the climate which saw the birth of the British Institution. Shee also wrote novels, theater and essays. In 1830, he succeeded Thomas Lawrence as president of the Royal Academy, a position he retained until his death. Both portraits Storer allow you to follow his way of individualizing models linked by the name. Anthony Morris Storer, politician and collector, and Anthony Gilbert Storer are presented in the tradition of the great British portrait: illuminated face, dark or refined clothing, controlled pose and background which gives depth without telling a complete scene. Shee favors a polite but not cold resemblance. Variations in the look, inclination of the head and mouth give each figure its own tone. The material remains supple in the skin tones and more synthetic in the fabrics. These portraits bear witness to an artist placed between the elegance of Reynolds and Lawrence and the more direct demands of the 19th century. The "Martin Archer Shee" selection notably compares Anthony Gilbert Storer and Anthony Morris Storer. His reading favors the story.

Shee uses the codes of the large portrait to better reveal the differences: a tilt of the head or a look is enough to separate two identities.