irish artists and society in eighteenth century rome

Irish Arts Review

Irish Artists and Society in Eighteenth Century RomeAuthor(s): Nicola FiggisSource: Irish Arts Review (1984-1987), Vol. 3, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 28-36Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20491903 .

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW

IRISH ARTISTS AND SOCIETY IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ROME

Rome, the artistic capital of Europe, has long been a Mecca for aspiring

young artists. During the mid to late eighteenth century, foreign artists flock ed there in greater numbers than ever before. This was due to the great up surge of interest in classical antiquity

which came about as a result of the dis covery of Herculaneum in 1709 and of Pompeii in 1748 and the writings of such authors as Winckelmann and Piranesi. The Irish were not least among the community of immigrant artists.

They were encouraged, and somnetimes financially assisted, by the Dublin Society and its Schools where most of them had their original training before going to Rome. Along with the artists came the dealers, the guides, and of course, the great number of visiting

Grand Tourists. "Rome is supposed to contain about

150,000 people, with very little trade or business amongst them, and a great deal of laziness, which the climate seems to produce." So wrote John Deare, a young English sculptor, in a letter to his father c.1785.1 The city, however, supported and housed many foreign artists in the latter half of the eight eenth century, including a number of Irish painters and sculptors, who tended to live in the area around the Piazza di

Spagna, then known as the "ghetto degli Inglesi" by some Italians. Italians did not at that time distinguish the Irish from their English counterparts.

The great meeting place was the Cafe degli Inglesi, on the west side of the Piazza di Spagna, where, apart from drinking, people could play billiards and read the newspapers.2 The Cafe provid ed accommodation for visitors; in 1750 Reynolds stayed there on the third floor. He was joined the following year by the English artist, Thomas Patch.3 Thomas Jones described the Caf&, with its "brazier of hot embers in the centre" around which people used to cluster in the winter, as "a filthy vault ed room, the walls of which were painted with Sphinxes, Obelisks and Pyramids, from capricious designs of Piranesi, and fitter to adorn the inside of an Egyptian-Sepulchre, than a room of social conversation."4 Much rough housing also seems to have gone on there and on 11 July 1777, Jones wrote, "One Richard O'Mooney, an Irishman, was found this morning dead, at the

Nicola Figgis imparts the results of her research in archives in Rome and in other sources into

the Roman sojoum of Irish artists, painters and sculptors

who lived and worked there in the latter half of the eighteenth

century.

b-o.tom of the wall that supports the fetras of the Trinit'a de' Monti - his legs and arms broken and scull frac tured ... NB. he was at the Coffee house the Even'g before . . ." 5 No record of what O'Mooney was doing in Rome has yet been found.

A list of Irish artists visiting Rome is given by Anne Crookshank and The Knight of Glin in The Painters of Ireland c.1660-1920, p.120. It has proved possible to amend this by a study of the Stati dell' Anime, (Archivo del Vicariato, San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome), a census of Roman parishes kept by the ecclesiastical authorities, and also by examining the marvellous files owned by Sir Brinsley Ford. Richard Hayward's manuscript list in the British Museum, which records the names of English and Irish artists in Rome during the period 1753-75, is a further useful source of information. 6

The following Irish artists visited Rome in the 1750s: James Ennis from 1754 until 1756; Robert Crone from 1755 until 1767; James Forrester from 1755 for twenty-one years until his death in 1776; John Crawley, sculptor, was sent to Italy in 1757 by the Dublin Society and he does not appear to have left Rome.7 John Trotter, portrait painter, arrived in Rome in 1757 and in 1762 was taken as a prisoner to Spain. I have found no record of the reason for this and in any case, he was back in

Rome by 1764, and returned to Dublin in 1773. 8 Matthew Nulty, the painter and dealer, remained in Rome from 1758 until his death in 1778. A Mr. Delaney, recorded in 1755 as a student and again in 1758 by Hayward, is pos sibly Solomon Delane who would have been about twenty in 1755.

In the following decade came Thomas Hickey from 1762 until 17679 and Mathew William Peters from c.1762

to 1765;10 in 1772 Peters returned to Venice for a further two years. Solomon Delane, landscapist, was active in Italy

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from 1764 until 1780, the year he was admitted to the Academy of Florence. The Stato delle Anime in 1764 gives his age as twenty-nine. If it is the same man

who was recorded in 1755, and in 1758 by Hayward, he is unique amongst the Irish artists for having paid more than one visit to Rome. In 1765, Christopher Hewetson, sculptor, settled in Rome for thirty- three years until his death in 1798. James Barry, subject painter, stay ed for only four years from October 1766 to April 1770 and then spent nine

months travelling in northern Italy before returning to London. Last to arrive in the 1760s was Hugh Primrose Dean, landscape painter, who stayed in Italy from 1768 until 1779.11

During the 1770s, Michael Foy, sculptor, arrived in 1773 followed by James Durno, painter and sculptor, who remained from 1774 until his death in 1795.12 Henry Tresham, subject painter, settled there for fourteen years from c.1775 until 1789; Hugh Douglas

Hamilton, portrait painter, divided his time between Rome and Florence from 1779 until 1792. The Limerick painter, Timothy Collopy, is recorded as living in Rome during the late 1770s. One of the last to arrive was Robert Fagan, history painter, who although born in London, was the son of a Corkman and always called himself Irish. He worked in Rome from 1783 until he committed suicide there in 1816.

Lodgings in the Artists' Quarter From the Stati dell' Anime it is

possible to trace where some of the Irish artists lived. In 1755 Robert Crone and James Forrester lived with Jacob Ennis, who later taught in the Dublin Society Schools, in the same house in

the Strada della Croce verso il Corso, Parish of S. Lorenzo in Lucina. By the following year Crone had moved else

where but Forrester remained with Ennis who stayed only until the Summer, leaving Rome in July 1756.13 By 1758

Crone was living in a house belonging to Sig. Marmieri with Matthew Nulty, (listed here as a painter, although better known as a dealer), in the Parish of S. Andrea delle Fratte. In 1758 Forrester had moved to the Parish of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, and was living in a house

with Carlo Mariotti, an Italian history painter, and the French artist, Louis Gabriel Blanchet (1705-1772), on

Volta la Selciata verso Piazza di Spagna. The Strada Felice, in the Parish of S.

Andrea delle Fratte, was traditionally the nucleus of the artists' quarter from the early seventeenth century and con tinued to be so during the late 1750s and throughout the 1760s. This street was named after Felice Perotti, Pope Sixtus V, and is today known as the Via Sistina. Piranesi had a workshop in this street in the Palazzo Tomati, where he sold his Vedute di Roma, published in 1751,14 William Chambers is said to have xesided above this studio for some time.10 The first of the Irish artists to settle in this street was John Crawley, a

Dublin Society School pupil and prize winner and pupil of John Van Nost; he is listed as "Gio Cuole inglese scultore

Eretico 25" in 1758.16 By 1763 Forrester had moved from Volta la.Selciata and occupied rooms in the same house as the architect George Dance, the younger (1741-1825). The next two years show a fascinating grouping: in 1764 Forrester lived next door to Solomon Delane, John Trotter, and the French history and portrait painter Laurent Pecheux (1729-182 1), listed as "Lorenzo Pecheul". In 1765 there is no entry for Forrester

who has been replaced by "Monsu Giacomo Amils pit. inglese 30" and next door Delane and Pecheux have been

joined by another Irish portrait artist, *Thomas Hickey, listed as "Tomas .Hichi Ibernese pittore Eretico 24"; he was probably offered accommodation in the house. by George Dance. On 10th April, 1762, Dance wrote to his father, "There is a young gentleman arrived here one

Mr. Hicky a painter who brought us Letters of Recommendation from Cap.n Smith and Brother Bill - He is a very agreeable young man we make much of him you may be sure on account of his recommendation." 17

George Dance was at this time shar ing his apartment with his older brother

Nathaniel (1735-1811), who according to Hayward's list left Rome later that year (1765). Nathaniel Dance specialized in painting portrait groups of the "Eng lish Cavaliers" against a background of

Roman buildings.18 He was apparently "hopelessly enamoured of Angelica Kauffmann" and "followed her from place to place."'19 It was in Nathaniel's lodgings, while he was away sketching in

Livorno, that Jonathan Skelton died on 19th January 1758 of a haemorrhage

resulting from his duodenal ulcer. 20 Of that group, the only artist to

remain in the Strada Felice in 1766 and 1767 was Laurent Pecheux. However,

George Dance drew a portrait of Solomon Delane thirty years later in London, showing that they remained in contact after Dance left Italy in 1765.

The Palazzo Zuccari, which is situated on the south side of the Piazza Trinit'a de' Monti between the Strada Felice and the Via Gregoriana, in the Parish of S. Andrea delle Fratte, was a well known residence for English artists such as Reynolds, Thomas Patch, David Allan and Joseph Wilton, and today houses the Herziana Library.21 The Zuccari brothers. who frescoed SS. Trinita de'

Monti in the sixteenth century, built the Palazzo and it later became the re sidence of Maria Casimira (1635-1716),

widow of John III Sobieski, King of Poland, and when she left to live in France was acquired by Alessandro Naiari, who converted it into apart ments. In 1770 Delane and Pecheux rented rooms there with "Monsieur Nevi Eretico".This was James Nevay, the little-known English history painter.

Delane's name does not appear in 1771 but by 1772 he was back again in the Palazzo with Hugh Primrose Dean.22

The Palazzo Zuccari was mentioned earlier in a letter from Jonathan Skelton to his patron, William Herring of Croy don, on 11th January, 1758 and prob ably looked much the same when Delane and Dean were there. Skelton wrote, "I have taken a very handsome lodging on the Trinit'a del Monte on one of ye finest situations about Rome; it commands almost the whole City of

Rome besides a good deal of ye Country. The Famous Villa Madama (where Mr. [Richard] Wilson took his

View of Rome from which I always

thought his best Picture) comes into my View. I shall have the finest opportunity of painting Evening Skies from my Painting-Room that I could almost wish - surely I shall be inspired, as I am going to live in the Palace of a late Queen and in the same apartments that Vernet had,

when he was here, and within 80 or 100

yards of ye House where those celebrated Painters Nicolo and Gaspart Poussin lived! I am to pay 6? a year for my

lodgings, and I can have them furnished for 4?. a year as well as I shall desire."23

Near to the Palazzo Zuccari and also

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW


on the Via Gregoriana was a house built by Salvator Rosa, where Raphael Mengs, the famous Italian neo-classical artist, died on 29th June, 1779. Thomas Jones and William Pars lived there from 1779. Jones and Pars entertained such Irish artists as James Durno and Henry Tresham in the "English stile". Jones gives an amusing description of how he and Pars spent much time cooking, "to the amusement of those Wags among our friends, who not withstanding their many strokes of Pleasantry on the subject, were very glad to sit down to a piece of Roast Beef and Plum

Pudding."24 By the late 1770s there was a shift

towards the Parish of S. Maria del Popolo, the first parish which travellers from the north encountered on their arrival in Rome. The Piazza del Popolo, with the obelisk from Heliopolis in the centre, is in close proximity to the Piazza di Spagna. In 1777 Solomon Delane lived in the Palazzo Piombino, Strada del Babuino, and was joined in 1779 by Henry Tresham (who had been living on the Corso verso Babuino in

1778) and the English gem engraver, Nathaniel Marchant. Eleven years later

in 1790, Robert Fagan was also to live in the Palazzo Piombino "over the coachmaker" with his first wife, Anna

Maria Ferri. During the 1770s, a number of

English artists lived within the im mediate area of the Palazzo Piombino on the Strada del Babuino. These in cluded James Smith (son of J.T. Smith, author of Nollekens and his Times),

William Miller, Philip Arger, Nicholas Jackson, the sculptor, and Robert Home, portrait painter, who was later to live and work in Ireland for many years.

According to Strickland, Home on settling in Dublin, married on 8th September, 1783, Solomon Delane's eldest daughter Susanna; she was a great beauty. This would indicate that prior to his departure from Rome, Home may have been a frequent visitor of the Delane household in the Palazzo Piombino. No further record of Delane's family in Rome has yet been found.

Christopher Hewetson lived in this parish for some time, on the Vicolo

delle Orsoline26 where he also had his studio. This would point to his being the sculptor listed in the Stato delle

Anime for 1792 and 1795, as "Cristofaro" (surname illegible), in a street off the Strada Vittoria near the Corso in the Parish of S. Lorenzo in Lucina.

Dealers and Antiquarians Dealers such as Matthew Nulty,

Thomas Jenkins, James Byres and Colin Morison were all long-term residents in Rome. Thomas Jenkins, by far the most famous dealer, was born in Italy and re turned to live there permanently from 1753, the year in which he is recorded as sharing a house with Richard Wilson. Jenkins was not only a dealer in pictures and antiquities but also a banker; for over twenty years he "officiated as charge d'affaires in behalf of the Cavalieri Inglesi, who visited Rome."27 In 1786 he purchased most of the antique marbles in the Villa Negroni,

Montalto, as well as Bernini's 'Neptune', which he sold to Joshua Reynolds.28 Tresham also had great success at the Villa Negroni; in 1777 he made a vast

Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Henry Tresham and Canova looking at Canova's Cupid and Psyche, pastel. Private collection, England.

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW


Matthew William Peters, Self-Portrait of the Artist aged 16 with his Master, Robert West, in the RDS Schools, 1758,

National Portrait Gallery, London.

profit from the Bishop of Derry by sell ing him some fresco paintings which he had purchased there for a mere fifty Crowns. 29

Robert Fagan was well known for his dealing activities. On 23 May, 1800, he wrote to George Cumberland from Rome, "I enclose a list of 55 pictures of the first class which you can send to Mr. Penn, Mr. Beckford and Others. I am sorry the beautiful Venus by Titian from the Villa Borghese has met with a little injury on the thigh on the way to

Leghorn by land .. ." Further on he mentions many "capital" pictures from Roman palazzi which he had shipped off to London at considerable profit.30

Many of the dealers appointed them selves guides and escorted the foreign visitors around the Roman monuments. One such cicerone was James Byres, who was also a collector of contempor ary paintings and owned about a dozen pastel portraits by Hugh Douglas Hamil ton, including portraits of himself, his partner, Christopher Norton, and his nephew Patrick Moir. He also owned several landscapes by Delane and Dean,

which hung in his rooms in the Strada Paolina.31 Describing Byres' abilities as a guide, Francis Powell wrote, in a letter from Rome in April 1785, "Soon after

my arrival here I applied to Mr. Byres, a Cicerone and principal Antiquarian

in this celebrated city, by which means I joined a very agreeable party of

my countrymen, who had retained that ingenious Gentleman for a similar purpose."32

Matthew Nulty, the Irishman, seems to have been a trustworthy cicerone; Jones wrote of him, "he occasionally was what they call Antiquarian to some of our English Cavaliers, that is to say, a person who goes about with them to shew and explain the Curiosities and

Antiquities - but not being of that oily supple disposition necessary to the Profession & disdaining the little Arts & pretensions to antient Erudition that most of these gentlemen assume - he did not find much employment in that Line ... I believe he had a small pen sion from some English Gentleman,

whom he had formerly served in that Capacity, with which his few wants were easily satisfied."33 Nulty died in Rome on 24th June, 1778; according to Jones, after over a fortnight's confinemernt in bed he "had the Strength & Resolution enough to crawl to the English Coffee house" where "he sat all the Afternoon - drank two half pint Tumblers of rum punch, conversed cheerfully - shook hands with us all round, & bid us adieu for ever - the next day ... he dyed & was buried the night following."34

Grand Tourists and Patronage On 22nd March, 1778 Jones record

ed the Italian view of the English visitors, "The Romans arranged their English Visitors into three Classes or degrees - like the Positive, Comparative and Superlative of the Grammarians - The first Class consisted of the Artisti or Artists, who came here, as well for Study and Improvement, as emolument by their profession - The Second, in cluded what they termed Mezzi Cavalieri - in this Class were ranked all those who lived genteely, independent of any profession, kept a Servant - perhaps - and occasionally frequented the English Coffeehouse - But the true Cavalieri or Milordi Inglesi were those who moved

in a Circle of Superior Splendour - surrounded by a groupe of Satellites under the denomination of Travelling Tutors, Antiquarians, Dealers in Virtu, English Grooms, French Valets and Italian running footmen - In short, keeping a Carriage, with the necessary Appendages, was indispensable to the rank of a true English Cavaliere."35 These, Irish as well as English, were in dispensable as patrons in ensuring the artists a livelihood.

In a letter from Rome on 13 th December, 1777 to the English minia turist, Ozias Humphrey, Thomas Banks

wrote: "We expect a great many English

gentlemen here this season; some are already come: Ld. Hervey, Bishop of Derry, visits the artists much and has bought all Tresham's antique paintings; Lord and Lady Maynard arrived a week ago, and are gone to Naples - here is a

Mr. Molesworth and Mr. Penn and Mr. Curzon, Mr. Tands and Mr. Bosset. This latter has bought Delane's picture which he painted for Sr. Charles Bamfylde, Stuart MacKenzie is also gone to Naples. There are several others, whose names I do not recollect."36

Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry, often remembered as "the Earl-Bishop", and mentioned in this account, paid numerous visits to Rome. Portraits of him were executed by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, James Durno and Angelica Kauffmann and his bust was sculpted by Christopher Hewetson. The Earl-Bishop wrote in 1789 to his daughter in Rome, "Let me know my dear what Berger More Durnot and Mr. Pye are about. Is Hewtson employ'd and

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW


in what."37 This seems to indicate that Hewetson's bust was executed after this date. In the catalogue of British Artists in Rome 1700-1800, the Earl-Bishop's reputation for meanness is described, "... he bestowed his patronage widely, if erratically, and seems frequently to have reneged on commissions. Mrs. Banks noted wryly that he refused to pay for her husband's 'Cupid with a Butterfly' (subsequently bought by the Empress Catherine) on the implausible excuse that it was 'Improper for a Bishop to have a naked figure in his house'. Believing Flaxman to be of out standing promise, he commissioned in Rome 'The Fury of Athamas' (Ickworth), but nevertheless drove such a hard bargain that the sculptor seems only just to have covered his costs."38 Accounts such as this make Tresham's success

with the Villa Negroni frescoes all the more amusing.

In an informative letter to George Cumberland on 14th May, 1791 Hewet son writes of the ill-feeling amongst the artists' community arising from the tendency of collectors to bestow their commissions exclusively on artists pro tected by dealers. "Now let me turn to the English Artists, whose ire and resentment is no longer leveled against the Antiquarians and Bankers and

Dealers; but turned against those who may be called Practical Dilettanti . Further on he wrote, "Mr. Head has had several portraits to do, most of them whole lengths, painted in his usual stile, and with most enormous cravats and marvellous tight Britches. Mr. Flaxman, as I am informed, has been much admired and has had part of what has been distributed amongst us. These two friends are protected by Mr. and

Mrs. Naylor (both Practical Dilettanti) who are likewise so good as to favour one or two other Artists with a fair word". Later he refers to Mr. Penn of Pennsylvania, whose "fortune and ply able disposition has procured some con siderable commissions for ... Mr.

Grignion, Mr. Deare, Mr. Fagan and Mr. Robinson." 39

Thomas Jones described in his Memoirs on 1st April, 1780 exactly how the dealers went about offering such protection to artists:

"Each of these Gentlemen had his Party among the artists, and it was customary for everyone to present a

George Dance, Portrait of Solomon Delane, 1795, Nottingham Castle Museum, England.

Specimen of his Abilities to his Protec tor, for which he received in return an

Antique Ring or a few Sechins - These Specimens were hung up in their respective Rooms of Audience for the inspection of the Cavaliers who came

*"40

james Barry complained of the ill feeling amongst the artists themselves and wrote on 26th February, 1768, "We are in number about thirty students, English, Scotch, and Irish; and as there is in our art everything to set the passions of men afloat, all desiring consequence and superiority; it is no wonder if distrust, concealed hatred, and ungenerous attempts, are perhaps oftener experienced, than friendship, dignity of mind, or open square conduct."4 1

The artist's lifestyle varied consider ably depending on his popularity and position in society. Those who worked as dealers, such as Tresham and Fagan, lived in a lavish style. According to Jones, on 23rd January, 1780, "Tresham gave a grand Entertainment to a large Company, on the occasion of the Bishop of Derry succeeding to the Title and Estate of his brother the late Earl of Bristol." 42

Fagan married twice, both times into prosperous families. His first wife was Anna Maria Aloisia Rosa Ferri, the daughter of Pietro Ferri, an employee of Cardinal Rezzonico who was her godfather. Fagan and his first wife lived on the third floor of the Palazzo

Piombino Carafa in quarters previously occupied by Simon Denis, a painter from Antwerp and his wife. The Fagans' daughter Esther Maria was born there in 1792. Her godfather, the artist Charles Grignon, is said to have been involved with Fagan in smuggling the Altieri Claudes out of Rome.43 Fagan's second wife was Maria Ludovica Francesca Geltrude Flajani, the daughter of Giuseppe Flajani, a surgeon.44 Fagan was a highly enterprising dealer and enjoyed the patronage of HRH Prince Augustus, son of George III; he also had a private income.45 James Forrester must also have been fairly prosperous as in 1769, he and the landscape painter,

George Robertson, were able to afford an excursion lasting eighteen days, when they visited Caprarola, Terni, Narni, Foligno, Loreto, Ancona, Perugia, Assisi and many other places.46

Of the English artists, John Deare, the sculptor, was highly successful with commissions and wrote to his brother Joseph, on 13th July, 1791, "I have the best study in Rome, and live like a Gentleman; keep a handsome saddle horse to ride out on of an evening after I am tired of application ... Mr. Penn ... took me to Naples in his own carriage, to see an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and the antiquities in and about Naples, which are so wonderful, that I dare not attempt to any descrip tion of them. I have 470-? worth of

work for him."47 Others were less fortunate such as the English sculp tor Nollekens, a notorious miser; he lived modestly and dabbled in antique forgery as a means of livelihood. "His

mode of living when at Rome was most filthy" and he lived on scraps discarded by the local butcher.48 We have no precise descriptions of the poorer Irish artists but what we know of Nollekens

might be taken as a probable parallel.

Death in Rome Francis Powell was struck by a

morbid atmosphere in Rome and in May 1785 he wrote:

"Tho' my good friend, Rome contains ample amusement for the classical scholar and virtuoso, yet I cannot think it is an agreeable place to live in. The

misery one feels at every corner of the streets, and, above all, a frightful custom of carrying the dead uncovered, takes off a great deal of the pleasure."49

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Several of the British and Irish artists died in Rome in the eighteenth century, including Jonathan Skelton (1759),

Matthew Nulty (1778), William Pars (1782), James Durno (1795), John

Deare (1798) and Christopher Hewetson (1798). James Forrester, a Roman

Catholic, seems to have been the only Irish artist to have had a memorial erected in his honour. This can be seen in S. Maria del Popolo; it records the date of his death as 31st January, 1776 and the inscription reads "Jacobus Forrester from Dublin eminent in the skills of painting pleasant things here lies". 50

Protestants, however, were buried outside the city walls, as Powell ex plained: "The pyramid of Caius Sextus, which is placed in the wall of the City, is a curious piece of architecture, and formerly contained the ashes of that

Roman who died under the reign of Augustus. Our Cicerone [Byres] inform ed us, that this spot was called the Protestant Burying ground; and so indulgent is the present Government of

Rome, that an English Protestant dying in this city, may, on proper application, be buried agreeable to the forms of the Church of England."51

It appears that "heretics" had to be buried during the night as Jones out lined in his description of the funeral of Pars's common-law wife on 6th June, 1778, "All the English Artists who were then at Rome walk'd in procession with torches ... BANKS the sculptor read the Service ..."52 In a similar account of the funeral of John Deare, Charles Grignon wrote, "his remains were attended by a few select friends to the Protestant burying-ground in this city, where his body was deposited with the

greatest decency, though without un necessary expense . . ."53

Sacheverell Stephens wrote of the Protestant burials that "even if they are of rank and distinction they are allowed no monuments: they were till lately buried with the excommunicated and the whores ... the common pathway is over the place where they are interred, which plainly shows what great regard they have for us hereticks." 54 This explains why no trace of these graves remains today. Nicola Figgis

I would like to thank especially Sir Brinsley Ford for so generously allowing access to his own research work. I am most grateful to Mons. John Hanly, of the Irish College in Rome, for the immense trouble taken to provide the 1748 street plan of Rome. Finally, and

most particularly, thanks are due to Professor Anne Crookshank for giving every assistance with this project.

_NOTES_

1. J. T. Smith, Nolle?cens and His Times, Vol. II,

p. 318, London, 1828.

2. British Artists in Rome 1700-1800, cat. no. 3,

London, 1974. Introduction by Lindsay Stainton.

3. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", Walpole Society,

1946-48, VoL 32, p. 54.

4. "The Letters of Jonathan Skelton", Brinsley Ford (ed.), Walpole Society, 1956-58, Vol. 36,

p. 38, note 16.

5. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit, p. 62.

The Church of SS. Trinit? de' Monti is

situated at the top of the Spanish Steps and was painted by Claude who was later buried

there.

6. Richard Hay ward, "Ms. list of English artists in

Rome during the period 1753-75", B.M. Print

Room. Richard Hayward (1728-1800), sculp tor, in Rome in 1753 for one year only, must

have compiled this information from letters of

acquaintances in Rome. He was a great friend

of Thomas Jenkins who would have been a

most reliable source of information.

7. W. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists,

1913, VoL I, p. 221. Anne Crookshank and

the Knight of Glin, The Painters of Ireland c.

1660-1920, London, 1978, p. 120, date

Crawley's arrival in Rome as 1750 but

Strickland states that in 1750 Crawley was

placed by the Dublin Society as a pupil of Van

Nost and was awarded premiums in 1754 and

1755 and that in 1757 he was sent to Rome.

On 2nd October, 1758, Richard Pocock,

Bishop of Ossory wrote to the Dublin Society

saying, "I am sure it is Crawley's intention to

return to Ireland and exercise his art of

statuary, and to settle here, and if he does not

I will repay the Society the eighty pounds they allowed ... I find he goes on very well at

Rome."

8. Trotter's arrival in Rome can be dated about

1757; an account in the "Hibernian Journal", 1800, states that Trotter was in Italy for

sixteen years and he was back in Dublin by 1773. According to Hayward's list, op.cit,

Trotter was taken prisoner from Rome to

Spain in 1762. Since Trotter was listed as

living in the Strada Felice, Rome, in 1764, he

could only have spent two years at the most in

Spain. Nine years later in 1773 he had

returned to Dublin when he painted the

'Group of Gentlemen at the Bluecoat School'.

9. In a letter dated 10th April, 1762, to his

father, George Dance mentioned the arrival of

"one Mr. Hickey, a painter", Dance Letters, RIBA.

10. Matthew William Peters was elected to

membership of the Florentine Academy in

1763. 11. Edward Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters,

London, 1808, p. 109. 12. For Durno's arrival in Rome see Hayward's

list, op.cit 13. Ibid.

14. British Artists in Rome, op.cit, cat no. 15.

15. Ibid., cat no. 57. 16. See note on John Crawley, Brinsley Ford

(ed.), "Skelton Letters", op.cit, p. 75.

17. See Dance Letters, RIBA. I am grateful to

Brinsley Ford for showing me his transcript 18. "Skelton Letters", op.cit, p. 52, note 1.

19. S. Redgrave, Dictionary of Artists of the English

School, p. 113.

20. Skelton's death on 19th January 1759, occurred in Dance's lodgings which may well

have been these rooms in the Strada Felice, where he was living until 1765.

21. "Skelton Letters", op.cit, p. 38, note 12.

22. Information courtesy of Brinsley Ford.

23. "Skelton Letters", op.cit, p. 35.

24. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit, pp. 86-87.

25. Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, Irish Portraits 1660-1860, National Gallery of

Ireland, 1969, p. 64. 26. Farington Diary, List of British Artists in Rome

in 1790._

27. E Edwards, op.cit, pp. 258-59.

28. British Artists in Rome, op.cit, Artists'

Biographies. 29. Ibid., cat no. 9.

30. Irish Portraits 1660-1860, op.cit., p. 65.

31. Fintan Cullen, The Life and Work of Hugh

Douglas Hamilton, M.A. Thesis, p.44, note 63.

32. Francis Powell, Letters and Observations written

in a short Tour through France and Italy by a

Gentleman, Rome, April 1785, p. 23.

33. "Skelton Letters", op.cit., note 14, p. 75.

34. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit, note 14,

pp. 74-75. 35. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit, pp.

70-71. 36. CF. Bell, Annals of Thomas Banks,

Cambridge, 1938.

37. W.S. Childe-Pemberton, The Earl Bishop, 1925, VoL II, p. 415.

38. British Artists in Rome, op.cit, cat no. 93.

39. Cumberland Letters, B.M. Add. Mss. 36496.

40. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit, p. 94.

41. Barry to Dr. William O'Brien, Works, I, p. 150.

42. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit., p. 93.

43. Brian de Breffny, "Robert Fagan, Artist", The

Irish Ancestor, VoL III, No. 2, 1971.

44. Ibid.

45. Fagan's will, dated 6th October 1807, opened 27 th August 1816, proved 30th November

1816. Ibid.

46. "Skelton Letters", op.cit., p. 58, note 16.

47. J.T. Smith, op.cit, VoL II, pp. 324-25.

48. ibid., Vol.1, p. 13.

49. F. Powell, op.cit, May 1785, p. 42.

50. "Skelton Letters", op.cit., p. 58, note 16.

51. F. Powell, op.cit, p. 38.

52. "Memoirs of Thomas Jones", op.cit., p. 73.

53. J.T. Smith, op.cit., Vol. II, p. 255.

54. Sacheverell Stephens, Miscellaneous remarks

made on the Spot, in a late 7 Years Tour

through France, Italy, Germany and Holland,

1756.

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irish artists and society in eighteenth century rome

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