Daniel Gardner was a British painter, best known for his work as a portraitist. He established a fashionable studio in Bond Street in London, specializing in small scale portraits in pastel, crayons or gouache, often borrowing Reynolds' poses.
By some critics Gardner is regarded as a notable artist who, however, was not an accurate draughtsman if it came to figure work especially to facial construction in some of his pastels. For others, on the other hand, it is this special looseness or facile elegance which represents the uniqueness of Gardner's style, and in which they see an anticipation of impressionism.
Daniel Gardner was a pupil of George Romney. However, Gardner used to say that he learned very little from him. At around 1767 Gardner moved to London where in 1770 he became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts. There he was taught by Johann Zoffany, Nathaniel Dance-Holland, Benjamin West, Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Francesco Bartolozzi. In 1771 Gardner won a silver medal at the Royal Academy of Arts for the portrait of an old man. The portrait was styled as a drawing in the Royal Academy Catalogue and therefore it very possibly was a work in pastel. It is said in a letter by Daniel Gardner's grandson, George Harrison Gardner, dated in 1856, that the subject of this portrait was The Chained Captive. Apart from this picture no further works by Gardner were shown at the major London exhibitions. At that time Gardner was residing at 11, Cockspur Street, Pall Mall, London. Later in his life he had resided at two different addresses in New Bond Street, London, no. 120 and no. 142, removing to the latter in 1781, but in 1793 he transferred his residence to lodgings at 3, Beak Street, Golden Square, London.
At around 1773 Daniel Gardner worked with Joshua Reynolds. It is said that in several of Joshua Reynolds' pictures, the trees or foliage were the work of Gardner. Reynolds' late style clearly influenced Gardner’s work in terms of composition, handling, and conception of figures. However, if it comes to figure work Gardner was never such an accurate draughtsman like Reynolds was. It is quite easy to believe that Gardner was responsible in many instances for the landscape backgrounds, for the trees, for the tree trunks and for the wreaths of flowers in Reynolds’ paintings. But it is not at all likely that Daniel Gardner was responsible for any of the figure work in the paintings of Joshua Reynolds.
Daniel Gardner became very popular as a portraitist. He portrayed some of the most famous personalities of his days like Jane Gordon, Duchess of Gordon, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne, Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, Angelica Kauffman and Lord George Gordon. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise, that Gardner appears to have made money very rapidly. His pictures were very popular, he was able to paint quickly, and he got good prices for them. He spent a considerable part of his time away from home, having adopted the practice of staying in the house with his patron, when he could paint various members of the family, and sometimes of the neighbouring gentry as well. During all this time, Gardner was carefully saving up his money, and as soon as ever he was able to do so, he purchased on 10 December 1787 the old home of his parents in New Street, Kendal, and the property adjacent to it. Gardner continued this practice of buying houses and land for many years, until he had accumulated a substantial fortune and finally could afford to retire.
In particular Gardner was well known as a pastellist. However, towards the end of the 18th century he started to paint in a technique that included oil paint, crayons, gouache and pastel. This technique was later copied by several other painters like John Downman, John James Masquerier and Peter Romney (1743–1777), the brother of George Romney. However, large paintings Gardner painted in oil only. These are rare and do not often appear on the art market. According to an original letter from Daniel Gardner, dated: London, 12 November 1779, and now preserved in the J. H. Anderdon Collection in the British Museum, Gardner painted his very first oil painting in 1779. Gardner speaks in this letter of an oil picture that he had just completed, as "absolutely the first oil picture that I ever finished." The gentleman shown on this very first oil picture was Philip Egerton of Oulton (1738–1786), bareheaded, and holding a hoe in his hand.
It is said that Daniel Gardner made many of his own colours from strange herbs, which he collected in the woods, and especially from powders which he made from bark and from fungi. However, the majority of the dry colours used by Gardner he appears to have obtained from Messrs. Robertson & Miller, 51. Long Acre, London, as there are many allusions to their prices in his notebooks.

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