Mrs Anne Seymour Damer. nee Conway
A very Rough Timeline - Post in preparation.
Born 1748. Died 1828.
The main thrust here is to examine the movements of Mrs Damer and how they might have coincided with other sculptors of the period including Giuseppi Ceracchi (1751 - 1802), John Bacon I (1740 - 1799)both of whom were believed to have taught her and in particular Joseph Nollekens who copied one of her busts suggested here as a self portrait.
A real problem here is that Mrs Damer requested that all her paperwork to be destroyed after her death and so all information, except for a couple of exceptions, on her life has to be derived from secondary sources.
1748. Born
1763, 1 May HW wrote to Damers father "Good night to the infanta.. whose progress in waxen statuary is advancing so fast that by next winter she may rival (Benjamin) Rackstrow's old man".
1766. Anne Conway was painted by Angelica Kauffman in 1766, the year in which she
made the decision to move from Italy to England. Within a month of having
arrived in London Kauffman was hard at work on this portrait. On 2nd August
Lady Mary Coke wrote to her sister, the Countess of Stafford:
"I went to Lady Ailesbury’s, and found her and Mr
Conway were going to a painter who had just arrived from Italy, and was brought
over by Lady Wentworth, the same who drew a picture of Mr Garrick, which was
shown, I am told, in the exhibition. I went with them, and saw the picture she
was painting of Miss Conway. It was like, and appeared to be to be well done,
but too large, as you would take for a very big woman".
1767, 15 June, Anne Conway marries John Damer. Eldest son of Lord Milton.
1772. Joseph Nollekens became a Royal Academician in 1772, soon after his
return from Rome, and Council minutes record his conscientious attendance. Giuseppi Angelini (1742 - 1811).arrives shortly afterwards to work as his assistant
1773. Giuseppi Ceracchi (1751 - 1801) arrives in London. He exhibited busts at the R.A. from 1776 - 79. He worked under Agostino Carlini (d.1790 first recorded in England in1760) and lodged at his house near at Kings Square Court, Soho Square.
In October 1773 Richard Hayward recorded in his list of
British visitors to Rome that ‘Giuseppe Carachi Italian sculptor’ had come to
England.
JT Smith in Nollekens and his Times . 1828 records - "when I was taken to see him, ....very extensive premises at No. 76, Margaret-street, Cavendish-square.
JT Smith who noted that Ceracchi ‘was the Honourable Mrs
Damer’s master in Nollekens... Vol II p. 120.as that lady declared to me herself.’
The Monument by Carlini to
commemorate his wife Caroline, was commissioned by Joseph Damer (father in law of Mrs Damer) in 1775 which stands in the north transept of Milton
Abbey in Dorset. Whilst coincidental it is possible that Ceracchi was working as Carlini's assistant, thus the connection between Mrs Damer and Ceracchi.
See - Championing Liberty: The Roman Sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi in Britain and in America, by Karin Wolfe pub 2018 Page 195. available on line https://accademiasanluca.it/uploads/American_Latium_df4004c1dc.pdf
On the other hand Walpole may have been responsible for introducing Ceracchi
to his protégé, Anne Seymour Damer. Apparently smitten by her ‘graceful
nymph-like person’ the Italian ‘begged her to sit to him, and he made a most
charming statue of her, whole length as large as life, in terracotta’
(Anecdotes 1937, 142).
This was later translated to marble (by Westmacott?) and is one of
Ceracchi’s most inventive compositions. Damer is depicted as a personification
of sculpture, standing with her tools at her feet and a statuette of a river god
in her hands (2).
Damer, who had previously only sculpted portrait profiles in
wax, subsequently received ‘two or three lessons’ in modelling from Ceracchi,
after which she began to work in terracotta (Anecdotes 1937, 142).
1776. Suicide of husband John Damer (b.1744) who shot himself at the Bedford Arms, Covent Garden.
1778/9. Mrs Damer travels to Florence. Little is known about this trip, 13 September 79 Horace Walpole tells her father "you may imagine how happy I am at Mrs D's return....
1780, February, Giuseppi Ceracchi disposes of his premises in Margaret St and leaves England.
1780. Terracotta Bust of Niobe (or Niobid). Her first attempt (HW) at making a bust, size 47 cms. signed and dated Anna Damer 1780, Fecit.1781/82. She was in Florence on 21 November, in Rome from late Nov 71 - April 72, returning via Venice 5th May, and Paris, back in England 13 June.
Walpole wrote to Horace Mann in Florence that she was so reserved and modest that ‘we have by accident discovered
that she writes Latin like Pliny and is learning Greek. In Italy she will be a prodigy; she
models like Bernini, has excelled the moderns in the similitudes of her busts and has lately begun
one in marble.’ This probably refers to the Niobid.
1781 - Ceracchi returns to Rome.
1781/82. To Italy with Lady William Campbell, (widow of Lord William Campbell). to Naples, arrived in Florence in early November 71 departed for Rome on 21 Nov.
William Hamilton writes to Horace Walpole on 28 May 1782 referring to her bust of Ceres, taken from a "Sicilian" medallion (disappeared). Mentioned in a letter from WH to HW 25 Feb 1783 regarding a cast sent to Princess Dashkova.
1783. Sculpts a profile medallion of the daughter of Princess Dashkova, perhaps from a sitting of 1781 when Dashkova was in London.
1784. The Portland Stone Thames and Isis Keystones for the bridge at Henley.
1785/6. To Italy - Departing England 30 October, Florence early 1786; in Rome by 24 Jan 86; Naples March/April. Rome in May, Florence 1 Jun; back in England July.
Almost certainly Damer presents the marble self portrait busts to the Uffizi and not in 1778/9 as some authorities suggest.
1785 Walpole records she made a ‘Bust of her mother Lady Ailesbury in terra-cotta, veiled.’
1787. George III statue for the Records House, Edinburgh.
1789. Marble bust of her mother Caroline Campbell, Lady Ailsbury.
1797. When Horace Walpole died in 1797, he left a life interest in
Strawberry Hill to Damer. She had the job of recording the contents of
Strawberry Hill for the Berry family, who had moved into an adjoining property.
Anne used Strawberry Hill as her country house until 1811, which she maintained
alongside her central London home in Upper Brook Street. In 1818, she returned
to Twickenham, buying York House.
.............................
The Nollekens Marble Bust.
Inscribed Nollekens Ft from a Model by the Hon Mrs Damer.
Rhode Island School of Design.
It is described as Head of a Woman but I would suggest that it is perhaps a copy of a self portrait bust by Mrs Damer of c. 1784 - 86.
It has been suggested that it is the missing bust of Elizabeth Duchess of Devonshire by Mrs Damer.
Elizabeth Christiana
Hervey was baptised on 13 May 1758 in Horringer, Suffolk, the daughter of
Frederick Hervey and Elizabeth Davers.
The family moved to Ireland when Hervey
was appointed Bishop of Cloyne (1767) and then Bishop of Derry (1768) through
the influence of his brother. Elizabeth, known as Bess, spent her childhood in
relative poverty, in Ireland and on the continent.
The family fortunes changed
drastically when Hervey became 4th Earl of Bristol in December 1779, but by
this time, Bess was already married.
A short-lived marriage - on 16 December 1776,
Bess married John Foster, an Irish MP. She had two sons, Frederick (1777) and
Augustus (1780), but the marriage was not a success and in 1780, the couple
separated.
Mr Foster was unfaithful, but on her side, Bess may have been
regretting marriage to someone beneath her newly elevated status as Lady
Elizabeth Foster. Elizabeth gave up custody of her sons to Foster and returned to
England, where she was forced to live in reduced circumstances.
In May 1782, Bess met the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire in
Bath, and quickly became Georgiana's closest friend. From this time, she lived
in a triad with Georgiana and her husband, William, the 5th Duke of Devonshire,
for about 25 years. She bore two illegitimate children by the Duke: a daughter,
Caroline St Jules, and a son, Augustus (later Augustus Clifford, 1st Baronet),
who were raised at Devonshire House with the Duke's legitimate children by
Georgiana. Georgiana grew ill and died in 1806; three years later, Bess married
the duke and became the Duchess of Devonshire. He died two years later.
Unfortunately it is not dated.
This bust presents several questions.
Who does it represent?
When was it sculpted?
Why would Nollekens make this bust? Did he have any interaction with Mrs Damer.
Why did Nollekens reproduce the sketchy finish of this bust particularly with the hair?
Where was it before it went to Rhode Island?
.........................
The Rhode Island Marble Bust on the left and the Uffizi Self Portrait Marble Bust Compared.
The Biographical Dictionary. Yale, 2009 under the entry for Damer records: -
1778 (this is incorrect - it should be 1784) - The Uffizi self portrait - and other versions?
1785, Self portrait - mentioned in Walpole Correspondence Vol 12 page 272.
1786, Self Portrait - Accademia di San Luca - Neoclassicism 1972 page 230.
Unless the 1786 entry refers to the Uffizi bust it would appear that there were two and possibly three variants of the Damer self portrait
The difficulty here is that the features of her female busts are very generalised. The bust of her mother (1789). Elizabeth Farren (Countess of Derby (NPG) c. 1788, and Mrs Freeman as Isis (V and A) all have similar generalised features.
As I have stated in previous posts it is very dangerous to make these sorts of comparisons - all I can do here is present the visual evidence as best as I can -I leave the reader to make up their own minds!
........................
The Rhode Island Marble Bust on the left and the Portrait Marble Bust of Elizabeth Farren compared.
Whilst the noses are different the rest of the features of these two busts are remarkably similar.
......................
The Statue of Mrs Damer from an original Terracotta by Ceracchi at the British Museum.
Height: 181 centimetres Length: 59 centimetres (plinth). Depth: 46 centimetres.
The original terracotta of 1778 was modelled by Ceracchi, but I suggest that the marble was carved in the studio of Westmacott.
Note from the BM website "The attribution to Westmacott was no longer
current by 1932 when the disposal of the statue was discussed, and agreed on,
by the Trustees (see above). As the attribution was made in Westmacott's
lifetime (see above), given his close association with the Museum, it is just
possible that the statue may have been carved in his workshop, but convincing
proof of this has yet to be found".
The Westmacott attribution comes from several sources including -
Old and New London, Walter Thornbury, pub 1878 ref BM "Against the wall, near the foot of the stairs, is a statue,
executed by Westmacott, of the Hon. Mrs. Damer".
Given to the BM by Lord Frederick Campbell.
As the donor died in 1816, the work must have been donated
before this date, but no record has so far been found. Lord Frederick Campbell
was the sitter's uncle, and may have had the statue carved from the model,
according to Smith, 1828 (see Dawson 1999, p. 89).
A terracotta was recorded in
1989?, but its present whereabouts is unknown.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_OA-10540
see - Portrait Sculpture, a Catalogue of the British
Museum Collection, c. 1675-1975, Aileen Dawson pub 1999 / (27).
...............................
I intend to put together a brief piece on Italian sculptors working in England in the 18th and early 19th centuries sometime shortly.
Plura, Carlini, Ceracchi, Locatelli, Turnerelli, (Tognarelli) etc.
