Self-portrait of Thomas Creswick, R.A., 1828

Thomas Creswick RA (1811 - 1869)

RA Collection: Art

Thomas Creswick was born in Sheffield and trained in Birmingham under John Vincent Barber. The self-portrait above was painted in 1828, the year in which Creswick moved to London, and presents the artist as a fashionable young man with a canvas on his left to denote his chosen profession. This early work emulates the stylish portraiture popularised by Sir Thomas Lawrence, but it was as a landscape painter that Creswick made his name. In the early part of his career, he favoured Welsh and Irish scenes, later taking an in interest in northern England where he painted a series of views around Haddon Hall, Derbyshire.