Richard Brompton, a portrait painter

Portrait painting

Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to depict the visual appearance of the subject. Beside human beings, animals, pets and even inanimate objects can be chosen as the subject for a portrait...

, was a pupil of Benjamin Wilson

Benjamin Wilson (painter)

Benjamin Wilson was an English painter, printmaker and scientist .He was the 14th child of Major Wilson, a wealthy York clothier whose house was decorated by the French history painter, Jacques Parmentier...

. He afterwards went to Italy, and resided some time at Rome, where he received instructions from Raphael Mengs

Anton Raphael Mengs

Anton Raphael Mengs was a German painter, active in Rome, Madrid and Saxony, who became one of the precursors to Neoclassical painting.- Biography :Mengs was born in 1728 at Ústí nad Labem in Bohemia...

. He was there introduced to the patronage of the Earl of Northampton

Earl of Northampton

Earl of Northampton is a title that has been created five times.-Earls in for the Honour of Huntingdon, first Creation :*Waltheof *Maud, Countess of Huntingdon** m. Simon I de Senlis** m...

, and accompanied that nobleman to Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, when he was appointed ambassador to the republic. At Venice he painted a conversation-piece

Conversation piece

Conversation piece is a term for an informal group portrait, especially those painted in Britain in the 18th century, beginning in the 1720s. They are distinguished by their portrayal of the group apparently engaged in genteel conversation or some activity, very often outdoors...

, in which he introduced the portraits of the Duke of York

Duke of York

The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...

 and several English gentlemen then on their travels. The picture was afterwards exhibited at the rooms in Spring Gardens in 1763, at which time he returned to England, and for some years practised portrait painting. Extravagant living brought him to the King's Bench, but he was rescued by the Empress of Russia

Catherine II of Russia

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...

, at whose request he went to St. Petersburg, where he was appointed portrait painter to the empress, and where he met with much employment. He died in that city in 1782. Among his best works are:

• The Prince of Wales in the Robes of the Garter, in 1772; mezzotinted
  Mezzotint
  Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...
  
   by John Saunders.
• Prince Frederick in the Robes of the Bath; mezzotinted hy John Saunders.
• The Earl of Chatham.
• Admiral Saunders; in Greenwich Hospital
  Old Royal Naval College
  The Old Royal Naval College is the architectural centrepiece of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, London, described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation as being of “outstanding universal value” and reckoned to be the “finest and most...
  
  . (pictured)