Bath, Art and Architecture

By January 1749 he had made an admirable copy of a relief of Antinous belonging to Cardinal Albani who thought him very clever and anxious to succeed.

From Florence in August 1749 he thanked Albani for his introduction to Horace Mann .....

He copied a bust of Cicero in the Uffizi and was aking a copy of Ganymede for Lewis Monson Watson (Walpole Cores. 20. 86 26 Aug. 1749

Vertue next mentions Prince as the latter returns from Rome 'where he had been to make his studyes about 7 or 8 years', and records his return in January of 1750 (Vertue 3. 152).

But so far the only definite trace of him in Italy is in a letter from yet another British Resident in Florence, Sir Horace Mann. In this letter, dated 26 August 1749, Mann is writing to Horace Walpole and damns Prince Hoare with faint praise:

"Hoare the sculptor I have had in my house is to accompany him [Mann's secretary, returning to England] ... I rather wish he may fall into good business in England. He is very clever in copying but I have seen nothing original of his doing.

Had he application equal to his skill, I believe he could make a figure at least in England, where sculpture is not at any great pitch".

A bust of Plautilla signed and dated P. HOARE Ft. FLOR:AE MDCCIL and copied from an antique bust in the Uffizi illustrates that he was a proficient copyist but to me appears to be a bit of a pot boiler

Vertue reports him

Vertue described him as 'a tall handsome and agreeable person somewhat skilled in music'.

The lack of application hinted at in Mann's letter to Walpole is corroborated in passages from letters written by William Pitt to Richard Grenville. Prince had been commissioned to design andcarve a monument to the memory of Captain Thomas Grenville, brother to Richard, who had been killed in action at sea in 1747. The first letter, dated 26 November 1752 from Bath, mentions that work is proceeding apace on the clay model for the statue, the figure promising "to be a very good one'. The second letter, also from Bath. (this is probably the same address).

Evelyn Newby suggests that he was more indolent than his brother (the very successful William Hoare) by nature, and without the financial need to work too seriously to establish himself, was already living in some style in the south wing of Ralph Allen's town house, now 2 North Parade Passage, moving to Abbey Green in 1766".

Prince Hoare's name does not appear in the Bath Mineral Waters Hospital Minutes until May 1758, when he was elected one of the Governors.

The previous year, his bust of Ralph Allen had been presented by Dr. Warburton, Allen's nephew-in-law, the gift being recorded in the Minutes for 27 April 1757.

Soon after returning from Italy and settling in Bath, Prince had married well. The Gentleman's Magazine in the list of marriages for 1751 included 'Mr Prince Hoar [sic] a celebrated statuary at Bath - to Miss Coulthurst of Melksham, Wilts, £6,000' .

The Bath Journal further endorses his happy choice, 'the beginning of last week was married Mr. Hoare an eminent statuary, to Miss Coulthurst of Melksham an agreeable young lady with a handsome fortune', and Prince describes himself as 'gentleman' in the marriage register for 26 May 1751.

Bath Chronicle - 1st November 1770 - Notices: Mauge & Lancashire, successors to Mr Prince Hoare, statuary (& his principal workmen for many yrs), now trading at same yard in monuments, chimney pieces, works in marble, wood & stone.

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Joseph Plura - The Assistant to Prince Hoare

Giuseppe Plura probably trained in Turin at the Carlo Emanuelle III Sculpture Academy and may have completed his training in Paris.

He emigrated to England and by 1749 had settled in Bath where he was known as Joseph. He appears to have begun his career there as an assistant of Prince Hoare and is said to have been responsible for carving the statue of Beau Nash in the Pump Room in 1752.

Coincidentally, Prince Hoare was in Italy in 1749 and may possibly have encouraged Plura to come to Bath. The Hoare and Plura family remained linked into the next century.

In 1747 Plura had taken on a commission in Madrid to teach the son of King Fernando VI about sculpture.

In 1748 however he had a disagreement with the contractor who had employed him to teach the prince, reputed because he was not getting paid and he subsequently left Spain.

He is next recorded in 1750 in Bath, England where he was married to Mary Ford (1733–1825), the 17-year-old daughter of John Ford (1711–1767), the master mason for whom he was working under the employ of Prince Hoare (1711–1769). (check this - when was Ford employed by Prince Hoare).

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Horatio Mann - Diplomat; 1732, travelled to Naples for his health; by 1737, he was assistant to Charles Fane, British resident in Florence whose duties he took over in 1740; remained British representative in Florence for the rest of his life; awarded a baronetcy in 1755.

British visitors to Florence recorded his kindness and generous hospitality; he is remembered particularly for extensive correspondence with Horace Walpole, a distant relation.

https://www.walterpadovani.com/

https://www.walterpadovani.com/portfolio-item/prince-hoareportrait-of-sir-horace-mann/

https://www.walterpadovani.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/scheda_WP_Hoare_ENG.pdf

The Portraits of Horace Mann and his brother

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Self Portrait of Thomas Patch, (not Horace Mann).

The Duomo at Florence in the background.

One of a series of 25 Caricature by Thomas Patch.

The engraving annotated by Edward Hawkins, keeper (1826-60) of the Department of Antiquities, British Museum, which Department he had joined in 1825, after an earlier career as a banker. The British Museum purchased his collection of English medals from him on his retirement in 1860

............................................

Plautilla.

Copy of the original

Marble bust.

65.5 cm

Prince Hoare.

Signed and dated P: HOARE F: FLOR: AE MDCCIL;

inscribed on waisted socle: PLAVTILLA

Provenance - Anonymous sale, Christie's, 3 July 1985, Lot 252.

Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath.

Image here from the Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/objects/484632/plautilla?ctx=14fc50eaf3dfb35ee4621ea8aa0083012c143ecc&idx=8

Saturday, 11 January 2025

Lady Melbourn and her bust by Anne Seymour Damer of 1784.

Post under construction

Lady Melbourn.

Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (née Milbanke; 1751 – 1818).

The Marble bust by Anne Seymour Damer.

1784.

The bust was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784.

A terracotta of the bust was said to have been seen in the Collection of Earl Cowper at Panshanger

See Horace Walpole Corresp. 12, 272 and H.W. Anecdotes Page 237.

Walpole lists it with terracottas of her cousin Miss Caroline Campbell and Georgiana Spencer the Duchess of Devonshire? Large as life.(info Benforado).

Elizabeth Milbanke married Whig politician Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (1745 - 1828) on 13 April 1769. He was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Lord Melbourne, Baron of Kilmore, in 1770, and Viscount Melbourne, in 1781.

As well as Melbourne House, Piccadilly designed by William Chambers now known as the Albany, the family had country residences at Brocket Hall, in Hertfordshire, and Melbourne Hall, in Derbyshire.

In 1791, Lord Melbourne, who by then had built up considerable debts to fund his and his wife's extravagant lifestyle, downsized by exchanging Melbourne House for Dover House, Whitehall (now a government office) with the recently married Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, who required a larger property in order to "entertain in style".

It was in turn converted into bachelor chambers / apartments in 1802.

She was the mother of William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and several other influential children. Lady Melbourne was known for her political influence and her friendships and romantic relationships with other members of the English aristocracy, including Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, and George, Prince of Wales.

Because of her numerous love affairs, the paternity of several of her children is a matter of some dispute.

The lettering appears to be by a later hand.

.......................................

The Triple Portraits of Lady Melbourne, Georgiana Spencer, and Anne Seymour Damer,

by Daniel Gardner (1750 - 1805).

1775.

National Portrait Gallery.

The Three Witches around the Cauldron.

The three witches from Macbeth painted in 1775 by Daniel Gardner, a commentary on their influence at court and in political circles in the late 18th century.

On her seventeenth birthday, 7 June 1774, Lady Georgiana Spencer was married to society's most eligible bachelor, William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire, who was nine years her senior.

..................................

The Milbanke and Melbourne Families'

with Lady Lamb's Father , Sir Ralph Milbanke next to her, and Her Brother John Milbanke

by George Stubbs.

H 97.2 x W 147.3 cm

National Gallery. - bought 1975.

The Painting was commissioned to commemorate the marriage of Elizabeth Milbanke and her husband Peniston Lamb.

Image courtesy art uk website

https://batch.artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-peniston-and-lady-lamb-later-lord-and-lady-melbourne-with-lady-lambs-father-sir-ralph-milbanke-and-her-brother-john-milbanke-the-milbanke-and-melbourne-families-115321

also available -

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/george-stubbs-the-milbanke-and-melbourne-families

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Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (née Milbanke); (1751 – 1818).

After Joshua Reynolds.

Mezzotint by Finlayson.

1771.

A dedication around a crest bearing the motto 'Virtue et Fide' to Lord Melbourne and 'J: Reynolds Eques pinxt. / J: Finlayson sculpt. / Publish'd Augst: 16th: 1771, & Sold by J. Finlayson, Orange Street Leicester Fields.'

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1902-1011-2092

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Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne.

In van Dyck Costume.

Richard Cosway.

76.4 x 63.0 cm.

c. 1784.

Image courtesy Royal Collection.

https://www.rct.uk/collection/400967/elizabeth-milbanke-viscountess-melbourne-1752-1818

The sitter was the wife of 1st Viscount Melbourne, Gentleman of the Bechamber (1783-1795) and Lord of the Bedchamber (1812-1828) to the Prince of Wales, whose mistress she became. She was the mother of 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848), the Prime Minister and favourite of Queen Victoria. Lady Melbourne was, according to Byron, not only 'captivating' but 'sagacious'. The date of the portrait, c. 1784, is suggested by the sitter's age and costume. She is shown in a Jacobean fancy dress typical of the Romantic period and of Cosway's art.

Provenance

Probably painted for George IV; recorded in store at Carlton House in 1816 (no 296) and 1819 (no 322); in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle by 1858

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Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne.

George Romney.

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Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne and Peniston Lamb.

Joshua Reynolds.

1774.

His brother George was painted by Maria Cosway in 1786 as the infant Bacchus.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Lady Melbourne.

after Joshua Reynolds.

Mezzotint by Thomas Watson

published 10 Feb 1775.

............................

The Lamb Children.

Joshua Reynolds.

1790.

The Affectionate Brothers.

Cleveland Museum of Art.

Stipple engraving.

Bartolozzi

..........................

The Marble Bust of Peniston Lamb as Mercury.

Mrs Damer.

Thursday, 9 January 2025

The portraits of Anne Seymour Damer compared with the (perhaps not so) Anonymous Bust by Joseph Nollekens.

Post in preparation.

A project like this is never completely finished and more evidence for against the attribution will inevitably appear.

Comparing the Anonymous Bust, here suggested as the Amateur Sculptor Anne Seymour Damer (1749 - 1828) by Joseph Nollekens (1737 – 1823) with known painted portraits of Mrs Damer by Contemporary Artists.

I am tremendously grateful to Milo Dickinson for initiating this project and for providing the photographs of the bust in order to make the comparisons.

https://www.simondickinson.com/

It is dangerous to make these comparisons - one can never be 100% sure, even with inscribed painted portraits and busts but in this instance I intend to make the case, as best as I can, that this bust is most likely a bust of Anne Seymour Damer by Joseph Nollekens sculpted in the late 1770’s or early 1780’s.

Portrait of Mrs Damer by Angelica Kaufmann.

This portrait was painted in London in 1766 when the sitter was aged 16.

___________________

Comparing the bust with The Yale Centre for British Art portrait of Mrs Damer aged 24

by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1773.

They say that this is probably the primary version – there is another “studio of portrait at the NPG in London.

"Ditto [a lady], half length" [1773, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1361

This might be wishful thinking on behalf of the Yale cataloguer.

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Excerpts from A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds

Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin pub 1909. Page 227 and 228.

https://archive.org/details/historyofworksof01grav/page/226/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Damer

“ At the Pantheon, concerts, as well as assemblies and masquerades, were given. On the 30th April, 1772, Sir Joshua records an engagement, and his name figures in the list of the company present. He went in domino. Goldsmith was there with his friend, Mr. Cradock, in Old English dresses. The fourteen rooms were blazing with light and decorations. The suppers and wine on these occasions were in keeping with the rank of the best part of the company. To people these rooms we have to call up many of the most beautiful and best known of Sir Joshua’s sitters. On this particular occasion a great many ladies, we are told, chose to adopt male dominoes, and ‘appeared as masculine as many of the delicate macaroni things we see everywhere in the “Billy Whiffles” of the present age.’ Among the distinguished of these ‘pretty fellows’ were the Uuchess of Ancaster, Lady Melbourne, and Mrs. Darner.” — Towft and Couiitry Magazine.

Standing ; in a white dress embroidered with gold, over which is a pearl-coloured robe lined with pale blue ; hands together ; round the neck a black ribbon, from a long loop of which hangs a small locket ; a long plait of hair falls over each shoulder ; landscape background, with a distant view of hills across a lake ; evening effect.

Sat in October, 1772.

Paid for June 17, 1771, Mrs. Demar, ;£"36 i5j-. So entered in the second ledger, but in the first ledger it is Hon. Mrs. Darner, but erased. Exhibited in the Royal Academy, 1773, No. 236.

Exhibited.

Dublin, 1872, No. 140, Grosvenor, 1884, No. 98,

the Earl of Portarlington.

The picture belonged in 1845 to Colonel Dawson Darner.

Sold at Christie’s, Price Collection, June 15, 1895, Lot 90, for £2,110, to Agnew.

Engraved.

J. R. Smith, 1774, 131 X loA in.

S. W. Reynolds, 5^x4 in.

A First State by Smith sold at Christie’s, 1887, Buccleuch Collection, for £16 i6s.

The YCBA Portrait by Joshua Reynolds.

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The National Portrait Gallery (London) version.

Head size, canvas 22 x 18 in.

Sketch of the head ; very little ornament in the hair ; pendant from neck ; velvet much thinner than in the large picture.

Exhibited at the National Portrait Exhibition, 1867, No. 532, by J. H. Anderdon.

Sold at Christie’s, April 27, 1864, Lot 108 (Bunyard, owner), for ;£^l6 5^. 6d., to Anderdon; and May 31, 1879, Lot 214 (Anderdon, owner), for £35 14s., to Colnaghi.

info Graves

-------------------------

The Ceracchi Statue

1778.

British Museum.

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The Uffizi Gallery, Florence self-portrait marble bust of Mrs Anne Seymour Damer.

Presented to the Gallery by Mrs Damer in 1784 - not 1778 as often repeated.

In my opinion one of her more successful busts.

Here I present two different comparisons of the Uffizi bust with the Nollekens bust - both photographs are of the Uffizi bust taken in different circumstances and highlight how one views sculpture in different light.

Without being too critical there is a certain generalised sameness, and a lack of definition about her portrait busts which were excused as "an adherence to the Greek style" as recommended by Joshua Reynolds.

...........................................

The Bust compared with a Miniature Portrait of Anne Seymour Damer.

She is dressed in a fanciful Elizabethan Costume initialled R C – Richard Cosway.

Height 60 mm - National Portrait Gallery - they say 1785 without providing any evidence. I suspect slightly earlier.

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The possible portrait of Mrs Damer by Joshua Reynolds.

Where is it now??

The Portrait illustrated below was used on the cover of Mrs D The Life of Anne Damer 1748 - 1828 by Richard Webb pub. Brewin Books 2013. An excellent place to start when researching Mrs Damer.

It should be read alongside Percy Nobles work of 1908 and the thesis by Benforado

This portrait is titled "Mrs Damer dressed as Athenais in the Richmond House Players production of Theodosius" by Joshua Reynolds - 1788.

I can find no reference to this portrait in the standard reference works on Reynolds except in the 1899 work A History of the Works of Sir Joshua Reynold by Algernon Graves and William Vine Cronin -available online at - https://archive.org/details/historyofworksof01grav/page/n13/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Damer

Iit is described as Half length, canvas 29 x 24 in.

Full face ; cloak trimmed with ermine, and fastened with jewels at the sleeves ; low-necked dress ; pearls in hair.

Sold by Henry Graves and Co., 1890, to Sir John Pender ; it was purchased at his sale by Messrs. Shepherd Bros., who sold it in 1898 to Charles Sedelmeyer, of Paris, the present owner.

- therefore the attribution should be treated with some caution until confirmed.

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The Bust compared with a miniature portrait of Mrs Damer by John Smart (1741 – 1811).

– undated.

Height 62 mm – 1770’s.

Image courtesy Messrs Christie's.

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-603686

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Comparing the Bust with the Portrait of Mrs Damer by George Romney -

Mrs Damer sat to Romney six times in 1779, April 21, 24, May 24, 31, June 5, and 9th.

She was aged 30.

For me this and the Reynolds portraits are probably the most convincing visual evidence.

.......................

A Crop from the Waldegrave Portrait of Horace Walpole and Mrs Damer

by Nathaniel Dance Holland. C. 1775 – 1780.

Note the shape of the ear.

__________________

The Schiavonetti Stipple Engraving.

undated.

after Richard Cosway (1742 - 1821).

Proof before letters 1791.

I have been unable to locate the original drawing but suspect it was probably completed some 10 years earlier.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1875-0814-1243 for another later version see https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200251616

Richard Cosway.

He was baptised in Devon, November 5, 1742 and died London, July 4, 1821.

Cosway is best known for his miniatures and drawings, as well as his connections to the Prince of Wales (later George IV) and fashionable Georgian society.

From the 1760s through the 1770s he exhibited consistently at the Society of Arts, the Free Society of Artists, and the Royal Academy.

By 1785 he began to sign his works Primarius Pictor Serenissimi Walliae Principis ("Principal painter to his most serene Prince of Wales").

He also collected Old Master paintings, drawings, and decorative art objects, which were sold at his death by his wife, Maria, who was also an artist.

___________________

Comparing the Bust with another undated Cosway sketch of Mrs Damer in the Huntington Library.

Pencil wash and Gouache

12.1 x 7.6cm

https://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/324/anne-seymour-damer?ctx=b7374cc6d617e9479e0716e85ca7b091420c58e0&idx=2

It should perhaps be pointed out that in my opinion Cosway uses the device of slightly enlarging the eyes in his female portraits in order to make them appear more appealing.

This sketch or a version of it was probably that used to create the Schiavonetti stipple engraving (above).

_________________

Comparing the anonymous marble bust with the Packington Hall marble bust of Louisa Thynne (1760 -1832) wife of the 4th Earl of Aylesford.

In 1781 she married Heneage Finch, 4th Earl of Aylesford.

by Joseph Nollekens.

Signed and Dated 1784 (this needs to be confirmed).

I am very grateful to Lady Guernsey of Packington Hall for providing me with these photographs.

The Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors, Pub Yale. 2009 states the bust of Louisa was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784.

A version of the Nollekens bust of the Lady Aylesford was offered for sale lot 23, 3 July 1823 at the Nollekens sale. The Catalogue does not make clear the material.

Currently the position of the bust, on top of a doorcase at Packington make photography rather difficult – I have an invitation to visit Packington in early 2025.

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The Paul Mellon Photographic Archive Image of Louisa Thynne.

When searching for images of Nollekens busts using the eared support to the socle I came across this image which more or less confirmed the attribution of the (so far until then anonymous) bust to Nollekens.

Comparisons with how the socle and eared support joined the bust itself confirmed the attribution and comparisons with the hairstyle confirmed the rough dating.

............................

Louisa Thynne, Lady Aylesford.

Mezzotint Valentine Green.

After Joshua Reynolds.

1783.

Bath, Art and Architecture

Thursday, 16 January 2025

Is this a bust Horace Mann by Prince Hoare.?

Saturday, 11 January 2025

Lady Melbourn and her bust by Anne Seymour Damer of 1784.

Thursday, 9 January 2025

The portraits of Anne Seymour Damer compared with the (perhaps not so) Anonymous Bust by Joseph Nollekens.

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