Bath, Art and Architecture

Thursday, 10 November 2016

Monuments in the Church at Edenham.1.

The Remarkable Group of Monuments in Saint Michael's Church, Edenham, Lincolnshire.

(Part 1).

The Bertie Family Monument.

Erected in 1738 and showing seven members of the family.

Robert Bertie Lord Willoughby became Earl of Lindsay in 1666, dying in 1701.

He first married Mary Massingberd and had a daughter Arabella.

He then married Elizabeth Wharton, and had Robert (1660–1723), Peregrine (c.1663–1711), Phillip, Albermarle and Norreys.

Robert lastly married Elizabeth Pope, and they had Charles and Elizabeth who never married.

Albermarle Bertie had the monument erected in 1738.

Robert, Lord Willoughby of Eresby.

Earl of Lindsey.

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The Honourable Norrys Bertie.

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The Honourable Peregrine Bertie.

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Elizabeth Lady Lindsey.

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Arrabella Lady Rivers (d.1736).

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The Honourable Philip Bertie.

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The Honourable Albermarle Bertie.

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Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Busts of Newton and Pope in Wiltshires Assembly Rooms Bath - Redux.

The Pair of Busts of Newton and Pope

Previously in Wiltshire's Assembly Rooms,

Terrace Walk

Bath.

It has long been my belief that the two busts split up in 1968 and recently reunited - and now in the possession of Lord Rothschild are the pair of busts first noted in the Gentleman's Magazine of February 1741 Vol 11 p. 102 as in Wiltshire's Assembly Rooms in Bath.

'On Mr Nash's present of his own picture at full length fixt between the bustos of Mr Pope and Sir Is Newton in the long room at Bath'

This reference and the epigram believed at one time to be by Lord Chesterfield are the only references to busts of Newton and Pope together.

I have recently rediscovered the poem below in my files.

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A Newspaper clipping from the London Chronicle 12 March 1761.

Oliver Goldsmiths Life of Beau Nash published in 1762 repeats the epigram -

This picture, plac’d the busts between
Gives Satire all its strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen
While Folly glares at length.

previously attributed to Lord Chesterfield but almost certainly by Jane Brereton d. 1740 writing under the nom de plume of Melissa.

This poem and Goldsmiths reference would suggest that the pair of busts were still at Wiltshire's rooms in the early 1760's.

Walter Wiltshire died in 1763, this I would suggest, is the most likely time when the busts were removed from the Assembly Rooms - although these Lower Rooms went into a long decline after the opening of the Upper Rooms and the building was taken over in 1782 by toyman William Glover.

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I have published previously on this at some length about the pair busts of Pope and Roubiliac by Roubiliac sold at the Hinton House sales of the propertie of George 8th Earl Poulett (d.1973) by Sotheby's.

Hinton House, Hinton St George Somerset the contents were sold in three sales - 1st November and 8th November 1968 and 28th March 1969.

see my previous blog entries

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/11.html

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-roubiliac-busts-of-isaac-newton.html

Somerset Archive and Record Service, DD/PT Box 9: an inventory of the effects at the residence of the Late Earl Poulett, Hinton St George, Somersetshire, May 15th 1819.

I have not yet been able to check this document.

Drawing of Wiltshire's Assembly Rooms by James Vertue c,. 1741

From the New Foundling Hospital For Wit, 1768.

Wednesday, 2 November 2016

Statues in London from Stow's Survey of 1735

The Statues of London

From

Stow's Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster Southwark....

Edited by John Mottley

Published 1735.

Monday, 31 October 2016

Highmore and his Paris Journal

Joseph Highmore and his Paris Journal.

Frequently interesting things drop into my e mail in box from other blogs.

here is a very recent example http://www.journal18.org/issue2/an-englishman-in-paris-joseph-highmore-at-the-academie-royale/

I have in the past posted pages on this blog on Highmore and his visit to Paris in 1734

and his letters of introduction particularly from Roubiliac and Gravelot. This is the first reference to Roubiliac in London other than his appearance on a list of members of White Bear Freemasons Lodge. This list should perhaps be treated with some scepticism as it is a copy and was perhaps written some time after 1730. (see below).

Roubiliac provided Highmore with a letter of introduction to the Sculptor Bousseau.

see - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/afew-notes-on-birth-and-early-career-of.html

The Gentleman's Magazine April 1780, Memoires of the Late Joseph Highmore.

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One of the four Aitches - the great English painters of the mid 18th Century.

Hogarth, Hudson, Highmore and Hayman.

Joseph Highmore

Self Portrait

49.8 x 39.8 cms

National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Australia

Graphite ink and watercolour.

108 x 99 mm.

Tate Gallery London.

Presented by Mrs Joan Highmore Blackhall and Dr Rosemary B. McConnell 1986

Prov: By descent from the artist to the donors

Lit: C.R. Beard, ‘Highmore's Scrap-Book’, Connoisseur, vol.93, 1934, pp.290–7, ‘

Highmore's Drawings for Pine's Processions and Ceremonies’, Connoisseur, vol.94, 1934, pp.9–15;

Alison S. Lewis, Joseph Highmore 1692–1780, PhD thesis, Harvard 1975 (University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor 1980), I, pp.230–1, II, pp.650–6, 659, III, figs.263–77, 279;

E. Einberg and J. Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675–1709, Tate Gallery Collections, 11, 1988, pp.64–71, all but last six repr.; Warren Mild, Joseph Highmore of Holborn Row, Ardmore 1990

Although not specifically catalogued as such I believe this wonderful drawing to be a self portrait in later life by Highmore.

The Artists Wife and Children

Joseph Highmore

Art Gallery of South Australia

Adelaide

Miss Susanna Highmore

The Artists Daughter

National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Australia

The Artists Son

Joseph Highmore

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

Highmore and his Paris Journal

Joseph Highmore and his Paris Journal.

Frequently interesting things drop into my e mail in box from other blogs.

here is a very recent example http://www.journal18.org/issue2/an-englishman-in-paris-joseph-highmore-at-the-academie-royale/

I have in the past posted pages on this blog on Highmore and his visit to Paris in 1734

and his letters of introduction particularly from Roubiliac and Gravelot. This is the first reference to Roubiliac in London other than his appearance on a list of members of White Bear Freemasons Lodge. This list should be treated with some scepticism as it is a copy and was perhaps written some time after 1730. (see below).

Roubiliac provided Highmore with a letter of introduction to the Sculptor Bousseau.

see - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/afew-notes-on-birth-and-early-career-of.html

The Gentleman's Magazine April 1780, Memoires of the Late Joseph Highmore.

__________________

One of the four Aitches - the great English painters of the mid 18th Century.

Hogarth, Hudson, Highmore and Hayman.

Joseph Highmore

Self Portrait

49.8 x 39.8 cms

National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Australia

Graphite ink and watercolour.

108 x 99 mm.

Tate Gallery London.

Presented by Mrs Joan Highmore Blackhall and Dr Rosemary B. McConnell 1986

Prov: By descent from the artist to the donors

Lit: C.R. Beard, ‘Highmore's Scrap-Book’, Connoisseur, vol.93, 1934, pp.290–7, ‘

Highmore's Drawings for Pine's Processions and Ceremonies’, Connoisseur, vol.94, 1934, pp.9–15;

Alison S. Lewis, Joseph Highmore 1692–1780, PhD thesis, Harvard 1975 (University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor 1980), I, pp.230–1, II, pp.650–6, 659, III, figs.263–77, 279;