British Gentlemen in Rome

Katherine Read, 1723–1778

ca. 1750

Oil on canvas

Yale Center for British Art

Six men in 18th-century attire stand and sit in front of ancient Roman ruins under a cloudy sky. The men are dressed in elaborate coats, breeches, stockings, and buckled shoes. Six men in 18th-century attire stand and sit in front of ancient Roman ruins under a cloudy sky. The men are dressed in elaborate coats, breeches, stockings, and buckled shoes. Read staged this group portrait in what is unmistakably Rome, with the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine in the background. The setting indicates that these young men are on the Grand Tour, a journey through Europe that exposed the sons of the British elite to the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. The Tour was considered a rite of passage, one that concluded their education and cultivated their artistic taste. Although not necessarily from families of mea