Hudson, Thomas

1701

1779

Thomas Hudson was born in Devonshire in 1701. He was a pupil of Jonathan Richardson the elder. When a young man, he ran off with and married his master’s daughter. Hudson subsequently worked up a very successful portrait practice in London in which he frequently painted the faces and hands of his subjects, leaving the drapery to Joseph Van Haeken, that skillful practitioner who, with his brother, Alexander, also worked for Allen Ramsay, among others. On one of his numerous visits to Bideford in Devonshire, Hudson came across the youthful Joshua Reynolds and took him on as a pupil in his studio. Reynolds left after two years and soon outstripped his master with the result that Hudson’s fame declined. Remaining on good terms with Reynolds, Hudson made a second marriage to a wealthy widow and retired to a contented old age at Twickenham, near Pope’s Villa. Like his master Richardson and his pupil Reynolds, Hudson was an enthusiastic collector of Old Master drawings.