Girl with a Bird

Girl with a Bird by John Hoppner from around 1784 depicts a young woman with a pet bird, a combination of portrait and genre that was popular in Georgian England. Hoppner's female subjects were admired for their natural grace and appealing warmth. Hoppner's oil handling favored warm flesh tones over silvery grey half-shadows, producing an immediate vivacity that reflected his admiration for Reynolds and Gainsborough. Neoclassicism (c.1760-1830) revived the austere virtues of ancient Greece and Rome in reaction to Rococo frivolity.

The girl and her bird are rendered with Hoppner's characteristic warm palette and fluid brushwork, the animal adding charming naturalistic interest to the portrait.