Theresa Thompson is given a glimpse of a more civilised age

There's fun to be had in this exhibition if you know your Jane Austen. The pictures don’t directly reference her novels, but the faces, fashions, and demeanours of the sitters could step straight out of them.

That attractive young lady with lively intelligent eyes, could that be Elizabeth Bennet? And that her beautiful elder sister, ringlets framing face, dressed in white muslin? What of the dancing girls, all flowing robes and curves and elegant arms, could any be the impetuous Lydia Bennet? As for the young woman seated on a sea wall, well, she could be one of sundry characters Austen sent to the seaside for escapades. And any number of the gentlemen in these portraits could audition for an Austen patriarch.

Of course, the display labels in the Ashmolean’s new exhibition An Elegant Society Adam Buck, Artist in the Age Of Jane Austen, tell you differently. The sitters are plucked not from the imagination of a novelist, but from real life and the creativity of leading Irish portraitist Adam Buck (1759‒1833), an artist much-admired by collectors and Jane Austen enthusiasts.

From radical politicians to royalty, naval officers to society hostesses, romantic literary subjects, family groups, and pictures of adoring mothers and children, this show of 60 works mostly from private collections watercolours, small portraits and miniatures, prints, and decorative arts designs – provides a fascinating glimpse into Regency society.

“This exhibition celebrates Adam Buck’s influence on Georgian art and style,” said Dr Jon Whiteley, Emeritus Curator of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum, who along with Guest Curator Mr Peter Darvall, author of a new monograph on Buck, curated the exhibition.

Born to a family of silversmiths in Cork, Buck worked in Ireland for 20 years as an accomplished miniaturist, and in 1795 moved to London where he was an almost instant success, rapidly gaining a roster of star clients including the Duke of York and his scandalous mistress, Mary Anne Clarke.

His is a distinctly refined, elegant style (a stark contrast to the caricatures of his contemporary James Gillray lately shown in this gallery). Its distinctiveness lent itself to gentle mockery, instance a Thomas Rowlandson print displayed entitled Buck’s Beauty and Rowlandson’s Connoisseur (1800) where a Rowlandson stock character, a frock-coated roué, leers through an eye-glass at a demure pink-cheeked young woman.

“Adam Buck had quite an inimitable style,” Whiteley said. The young women and girls portrayed almost invariably wear white, their robes and poses now and again reminiscent of figures on Greek pots; his sitters frequently pose in profile, Greek-style; and there’s an element of frieze to some earlier works. Moreover, by the time he was working as an artist the Neoclassical style was ubiquitous.

From 1810 onwards, his name now firmly associated with the colourful ranks of Regency society, Buck made a new reputation for himself with sentimental images of women and children. Ceramics soon followed, decorated with these popular designs, made by New Hall, Machin and other manufacturers.

Where & When
Artist in the Age of Jane Austen, is at the Ashmolean until October 4