Pompeo Girolamo Batoni

Pompeo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome) Portrait of the Rev. Thomas Kerrich (1748-1828), in an embroidered blue waistcoat and fur-lined green coat, holding a letter in his right hand, by a column inscribed 'A mons Monsieur Kerrich Gentilhomme anglois à Rome.' (lower left, on the letter). oil on canvas 29 1/8 x 23 7/8 in. (74 x 60.7 cm.) By inheritance through the descendants of the sitter's first cousin, Thomas Kerrich of Geldeston, to Captain Walter Fitzgerald Kerrich (d. 1913), Geldeston Hall, Norfolk, by 1907. Private collection, Johannesburg, by 1982. THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN Prince F. Duleep Singh, Portraits in Norfolk Houses, Norwich, I, 1928, p. 177, no. 22, as 'Thomas Kerrich of Geldeston, circa 1780'. E. Emmerling, Pompeo Batoni, sein Leben und Werk, Darmstadt, 1932, p. 104, no. 35, as 'circa 1780'. J. Steegman, 'Some English Portraits by Pompeo Batoni', The Burlington Magazine, LXXXVII, March 1946, p. 63, no. 84, as 'circa 1783'. I. Belli Barsali, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, VII, Rome, 1965, p. 201. E.P. Bowron and F. Russell, 'A List of Pompeo Batoni's British Sitters', Pompeo Batoni and his British Patrons, exhibition catalogue, Kenwood, 1982, p. 92, no. 99, as 'circa 1767'. A.M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text, ed. E.P. Brown, Oxford, 1985, pp. 333-4, no. 379, as 'circa 1773-4'. J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, compiled from the Brinsley Ford Archive, New Haven and London, 1997, p. 574. E.P.Bowron and P. Kerber, Pompeo Batoni (forthcoming). This sensitive portrait was identified by the late Sir Brinsley Ford as being of Thomas Kerrich (1748-1828) rather than his eponymous cousin, Thomas Kerrich of Geldeston, by whose descendants it was inherited. Kerrich was the only son of the Rev. Samuel Kerrich (1696-1768), vicar of Dersingham and rector of Wolferton and West Newton, all in Norfolk, by his second wife, Barbara, daughter of the Rev. Matthew Postlethwayte, Archdeacon of Norwich. Educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1771, he was in that year awarded a Worts scholarship to travel for three years, accompanying a pupil, Daniel Pettiward, of Trinity Cambridge, on an extended tour of France, the Low Countries and Italy. He met Thomas William Coke, of Holkham, the great Norfolk seat, at Turin in 1772. Early in 1774 they met again in Turin, visiting Milan and Isola Bella, and in the ensuing April they went on a three-day visit to Tivoli from Rome: it was probably at about this time that they had a joint audience with Pope Clement XIV. The relationship of the two tourists from Norfolk is eloquently expressed in the contrast between this elegant, intimate portrait and Batoni's celebrated whole-length of Coke at Holkham. Batoni was aware that English canvas sizes differed from those in general use in Rome, and from the late 1750s onwards understood that many of his clients wished to have pictures that conformed to the standard 30-by-25-inch format. In this instance small strips of excess canvas are turned over the stretcher on the top and to the right to make the desired size. Kerrich was a scholarly man, collecting drawings of antiquities in Rome, and himself practising as an artist -- a self-portrait of 1774 was sold in these Rooms, 21 March 1989, lot 87. After his return to England he received an M.A. from his University (1775) and was elected to a fellowship at Magdalene. Ordained in 1784 he was presented to his father's former living at Dersingham in that year, and became Vicar of Hemsby in 1786. In 1797 he became the Protobibliothecarius of Cambridge, and was elected to the Society of Antiquaries. In 1798, the year of his marriage to Sophia, daughter of the Cambridge physician, Richard Hayles, he was appointed a prebendary of Lincoln, and in 1812 he became a prebendary of Wells. His religious duties were wholly compatible with his intellectual interests, and his role in the Senate Library; he also served, not uncontroversially, as Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum. A substantial inheritance from the sculptor, John Nollekens, in 1823, enabled him in his final years to become a significant collector of books, manuscripts and medieval works of art.

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome) Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, in a red coat and a blue waistcoat with gold embroidery, holding a book and a tricorn hat, with a bronze statuette of the Venus de' Medici on the table, the Colosseum in the distance oil on canvas 39 x 29 in. (99 x 73.6 cm.) with the old inventory number '12' (on the reverse) (Possibly) by descent within the Tew family. Mr. J. Eyles; Christie's, London, 17 December 1904, lot 111, as 'Van Loo' (36 gns. to Shepherd). Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 5 July 1984, lot 272. with Leger Galleries, London, 1990, where acquired by the present owner. PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN A.M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni, A Complete Catalogue of his Works, ed. E.P. Bowron, Oxford, 1985, p. 276. no. 219, pl. 205. B. Stewart and M. Cutten, The Dictionary of Portrait Painters in Britain up to 1920, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997, p. 19, pl. 10. London, Leger Galleries, British Painting, 4 May-2 June 1989, no. 25. While the sitter in this portrait remains unidentified, his dress - particularly his scarlet coat - suggests that he was one of the many Grand Tourists who had their likeness captured by Batoni during their stay in Rome. The perfect souvenir of an educational voyage to the Italian peninsula, this painting presents the young gentleman as the consummate, erudite aristocrat. He appears in an interior before a window overlooking perhaps the most iconic of Roman buildings, the Colosseum, pensively meeting the viewer's gaze while exuding a cool and controlled confidence. Casually leaning against the stone column, he holds a leather-bound book in his right hand with his finger tucked inside to keep his page marked, a traditional conceit often employed by the artist in his portraits. The sitter gestures with his left hand to a map of Italy which lies on the table in front of him, suggesting that he has been diligently studying the history, geography and culture of this foreign land. Also present on the table is a bronze statuette of the Medici Venus, which at the time was one of the most famous antique sculptures in all of Italy. The original marble statue had been in the Villa Medici in Rome perhaps as early as the end of the sixteenth century, but by the time the present portrait was painted, it had been sent to Florence, where it may still be seen today in the Uffizi. Dated by Clark and Bowron to circa 1758-1759 (loc. cit.), the present painting is the only known portrait in which Batoni chose to use this accessory, and moreover, the artist never included the statue in any of his other compositions.

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome) Portrait of Thomas Fortescue, M.P. (b. 1744), three-quarter-length,in a gold brocaded green coat, a tricorn in his left hand signed, inscribed and dated 'POM: BATONI/PINXIT ROMAE/ANNO 1767'(lower left) oil on canvas 39 x 29¾ in. (99 x 75.5 cm.) Pre-Lot Text PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR Provenance Presumably by descent to the Ruxton family, Red House, CountyLouth, Ireland. Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 22 April 1983, lot 87. with Colnaghi, London. Ann Getty, London. Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 16 December 1998, lot 72(£111,500), where purchased by present owner. Literature A.M. Clark, ed., E.P. Bowron, Pompeo Batoni, A CompleteCatalogue of his Works, Oxford, 1985, p. 309, no. 311, pl.286. J. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy1701-1800, compiled for the Brinsley Ford Archive, New Haven andLondon, 1997, p. 373. Lot Notes Thomas Fortescue (b. 1744) was the eldest son of ChichesterFortescue of Dromiskin and the Hon. Elizabeth Wellesley, eldestdaughter of Richard, 1st Earl of Mornington, and great aunt of the1st Duke of Wellington. Married successively to the Hon. MaryPackenham, second daughter of the 1st Lord Longford, who died in1775, and to Mary, daughter of Edward Nicholson, he was elected tothe Irish House of Commons as a Member of the Borough of Trim -- aconstituency controlled by his mother's family, in 1768 and heldthe seat until 1778. Political interests ran in his family and hisgrandson, Chichester Fortescue, 1st Lord Carlingford, the Liberalpolitician, was to be a close friend and correspondent of theEnglish artist Edward Lear. Fortescue's Grand Tour is inadequatelydocumented, but he is known to have been presented at the Court ofthe Grand Duke of Tuscany by Sir Horace Mann in January 1767 -- theyear in which the present portrait was made -- and to have beeninvited to dine by the Grand Duke (letter of 24 January 1767 fromMann to Horace Walpole, The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole'sCorrespondence, ed. W.S. Lewis, XXII, p. 482). Many of Batoni's earliest British patrons were from Anglo-Irishfamilies: the 1st and 2nd Earls of Milltown, of Russborough; JosephHenry, of Straffan; Ralph Howard, later 1st Viscount Wicklow, ofShelton; Thomas Dawson, later 1st Lord Cremorne; Robert Clements,later 1st Earl of Leitrim, of Killadoon; and James Caufield, Lord,and later 1st Earl of Charlemont, of Marino; other early patrons,like Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke, also had considerable Irishestates. The pattern set in the years around 1750 was to bemaintained for over thirty years and the builders of many of thegreat Irish houses of the period, including for example Headfort,commissioned portraits from Batoni. It may not be a coincidencethat two other Irish sitters, Sir John Parnell, later 2nd Bt., andJames Stewart of Killymoon, were also painted by the artist in1767-68. A fine example of Batoni's controlled classicism, the presentportrait is of the same year as two of the artist's most masterlyfull-lengths, Sir Sampson Gideon and His Tutor, (Melbourne,National Gallery of Victoria) and John, Lord Mountstuart, later 1stMarquess of Bute (Mount Stuart). Employing precise paint strokesand a high level of surface polish, Batoni renders Fortescue'sslightly amused expression with subtle vivacity, while the sitter'sstriking emerald green coat and waistcoat is flamboyant in itsflourish of lace and gold frogging -- the artist's control offabrics never relaxes -- making for a memorable and elegant imageof youthful self-confidence.

Lot Description Pompeo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome) Portrait of Thomas Thornhill Esq., half-length, in a blue velvetcoat oil on canvas 29 x 24½ in. (73.6 x 62.2 cm.) Pre-Lot Text THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN Provenance By descent from the sitter to Sir Thomas Thornhill, PakenhamLodge, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. David H. King Jr. (1849-1916), New York. Mrs. H.B. Hollins; American Art Association, January 1905, lot618. Albert E. Smith; American Art Association, 3 February 1921, lot 73,as 'George Romney'. Purchased by the parents of the present owner in 1953 and then bydescent. Literature A.M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works,New York, 1985, p. 300, no. 289, as 'whereaboutsunknown'. Lot Notes The re-mergence of the present portrait represents an excitingaddition to Batoni's oeuvre, having passed erroneously in the earlypart of the 20th century through the New York salerooms as a workby George Romney. One of the many of the young Englishmen who satto Batoni on the Grand Tour, little biographical information isknown about the Thomas Thornhill (1735/5-1800). He succeeded to hisuncle's estates at Fixby, Yorkshire and in 1779 married EleanorLynne. Prior to this, c. 1761-4, Thomas undertook a European tourin the company of his younger brother, George, who had a house atDiddington. Thomas is recorded at Capua on 8 February and 12 March1761 traveling with the Swiss apothecary, intellectual and poet,Jean-Baptiste Tollot acting as their guide (J. Ingamells, ADictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, NewHaven, 1997, p. 938). At Paris, they made the acquaintance of andbefriended, Laurence Sterne. A final reference records the purchaseof four paintings from the marine painter, Joseph Vernet by 'M.Thornhill, cadet' on 17 May 1764 and a further two more in 1766(Léon Lagrange, Joseph Vernet et la Peinture au XVIII siécle,Paris, 1864, pp. 343-46). The Thornhills were descended from an ancient family ofAnglo-Danish landholders in Yorkshire. Much of their holding was inthe Calder Valley between Pontefract and Dewsbury. The familyfought with Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge 1066 and theirancestor Gamall is mentioned in the Domesday Book 1085. TheThornhills settled and established themselves near to Dewsbury atThornhill Lees. They also held the sub manor of Midgley, hence thesimilarity between the Arms of Midgley and Thornhill. Fixby Hallwas modernised by Thomas Thornhill in the mid-18th century and aspart of these renovations, he built the Orangery as a weddingpresent to his bride Eleanor Lynne. Thomas's eldest son, alsocalled Thomas, inherited the estate and notably employed RichardOastler, the social reformer as Steward to the estate. Thomas'ssister, Clara, eventually inherited Fixby and also bought RushtonHall in Northamptonshire. She became a personal friend of CharlesDickens and it is thought that he gained his inspiration forHaversham Hall in Great Expectations from his visits. The Thornhillfamily lived full time at Fixby Hall until 1809 when they moved toNorfolk and the building was divided into three livings.

DESCRIPTION inscribed on the reverse by a later hand: BATTONI oil on canvas PROVENANCE Henry Pelham Archibald Douglas Pelham-Clinton (1864-1928), 7thDuke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, by 1879;Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 23 June 1967, lot 60, toTooth;Anonymous sale, Monaco, Christie's, 15 June 1986, lot 59;Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1987, lot 69;Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1991, lot 52. EXHIBITED Nottingham Castle, Midland Counties Art Museum, 1879. LITERATURE AND REFERENCES A.M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni : A Complete Catalogue of his Workswith an Introductory Text , ed. E.P. Bowron, Oxford 1985, pp.217-18, cat. no. 30, reproduced plate 33. CATALOGUE NOTE This delightful painting of the Madonna and Child with theInfant Saint John the Baptist is a fine example of a religiouspainting by the Lucchese painter Pompeo Batoni. Better known forhis close study of antiquity and the portraits he produced for theGrand Tourists, Batoni also became a highly respected historypainter, receiving commissions from private individuals as well asthe church in Rome. This is a relatively rare example of anon-secular work by the artist and paintings of a religious subjectmatter consitute barely a fifth of Batoni's total output. The figures of the Madonna and Child are inspired by the centralgroup in one of Batoni's most important early altarpieces; TheHoly Family with Saints Elizabeth, Zacharias and the InfantBaptist , painted for the church of Santi Cosma e Damiano allaScala, Milan, and moved to the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, afterthe church's suppression in 1796.1 The altarpiece hasbeen dated to circa 1738-40 on grounds of style and theexistence of a sheet of preparatory drawings relating to theputti in the altarpiece seems to concur with thisdating.2 The sheet also includes a sketch for theAllegory of Tranquillity in the Palazzo Colonna which wasbegun before 1738 and completed by 1740, indicating that Batoni wasprobably working on both projects concurrently in the late 1730s.Clark believed this canvas to be substantially autograph andpainted at around the same time as the larger altarpiece so asimilar dating of 1738-40 should be assumed here. Batoni probablyreceived the commission from a patron seeking a religious paintingfor private devotion. The Madonna and Christ Child are shown in thesame pose, although she is shown in three-quarter rather thanfull-length, and the figure of the Infant Saint John the Baptist isan entirely new invention. Although the same figure appears in thealtarpiece, he shies away from the Madonna and Child and seeksrefuge in the arms of Saint Elizabeth, whereas here the Baptistseems more confident and leans nonchalantly on the Madonna's leftknee. The painting shows the influence of Raphael and Correggio,both of whom Batoni admired enormously. Correggio's sensuality andsentimental religiosity obviously struck a chord with Batoni, andfor many artists working in Rome in the 17th and 18th centuriesRaphael embodied artistic perfection: as a young man Batoni drewalmost daily in the Vatican Stanze and VillaFarnesina. 1. See A.M. Clark, under Literature , p. 217, cat. no. 29,reproduced plate 32.2. See K. Andrews, National Gallery of Scotland. Catalogue ofItalian Drawings, Cambridge 1968, vol. I, p. 15, cat. no. D2148,reproduced vol. II, fig. 128.