Resumen de Duveen's French frames for British pictures
The British dealer Joseph Duveen was responsible for exporting the finely carved frames, based on 18th-century French designs, that appear on many works of art in North American galleries. Duveen's frames may be divided into three stylistic types, and are generally found on portraits by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Raeburn, Lawrence, and Hoppner, as well as occasionally appearing on paintings by other British artists, including Turner. Curiously, for French paintings, Duveen rarely used these frames for French portraits, preferring to display them within existing period frames, either a preserved or an adapted original. The appeal of the French designs for Duveen is explained by his ambition, as a dealer in the decorative arts as well as paintings, to supply his clients with entire interiors that were predominantly French in style.
