Daniel Gardner (1750-1805)

Helen and Nevillia Senior of Pylewell

Body color, pastel and oil on laid paper, laid down on a wooden panel; oval, 26 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches, within a  gilt, carved frame.

Helen Senior (1763-1837) and her younger half-sister Nevillia (1769-1842) were the daughters of Ascanius William Senior; Helen by his first wife,  Helen and Nevillia by Charlotte Walter, his second.  Ascanthius went to India as a young man in 1753 to make his fortune as a "Writer" and later a Clerk in the employ of the East India Company, rising in position and stature and when he returned to England 13 years later, he came back as an extremely wealthy man and purchased properties in London and in the countryside, including Pylewell in 1780.  This portrait of his two oldest (of three) daughters was probably done in c. 1772-73, based on the age of the two girls—shown here with a favorite lap-dog in a country setting.

          Daniel Gardner was born in Westmorland and probably studied under George Romney in Kendal and again in London during the 1760s.  From 1770-72, he was a student at the Royal Academy Schools and won a silver medal for figure drawing in 1771 and exhibited at the RA for the first time that same year.  About 1772 he studied in Sir Joshua Reynold's studio.  His association and friendship with both Romney and Reynolds led to valuable society introductions and he soon became a fashionable and successful portrait painter.  Unlike most other leading portrait artists, who worked in oil, Gardner developed his own medium, a combination of body color, pastel and oils—the three being combined in a single work, as seen in this fine portrait.  His group portraits of children are especially notable for their warm and sentimental treatment and it is perhaps the uniquess of his medium that heightened his success in such commissions.