(Bygone (Beauties: A SELECT SERIES OF TEN PORTRAITS OF LADIES OF RANK AND FASHION From Taintings by JOHN HOPPNER, R.A., Engraved by CHARLES WILKIN; ANNOTATED BY Andrew W. Tuer, f.s.a., Author of “Bartolozzi and his Works," &c LONDON: The Leadenhall Prefs, 50, Leadenhall Street, E.C. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London & Melbourne. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd : New York : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 743 O’ 745, Broadway. (Bygone (Beauties: The Painter. A HERE is an essential meanness” says Washington Irving, “ in the wish to get the better of anyone. The only com- petition worthy a wise man is with himself.” But the studio is, in a certain sense, a very school of rivalries, some are legitimate, others are ignoble. Of the latter class was that which Lawrence felt for Hoppner, the painter of most of these Bygone Beauties. When the wondrously successful boy—who produced port¬ raits at six years of age while he was still at his father’s inn at Devizes, and long before his antiquarian friends discovered a Crusader pedigree for him—came to London in 1787, he thought that “nobody but Reynolds Reynolds matched him in heads.” Hoppner, Opie, and Gainsborough he put aside in the flush of that youthful impetuosity which miscalcu¬ lates so much and so often. But the sitters were not all on the side of Lawrence. Hoppner continued to be the favourite of one half of the public, and that half was headed by the Prince of Wales. Hoppner’s popularity is evidenced by the fact that when he died, in i8io, Lawrence immediately raised his prices from eighty to one hundred guineas for heads, and from three hundred and twenty to four hundred guineas for full-lengths. Hoppner’s style was founded on an attentive study of Sir Joshua’s. He aimed at portraying elegance and high breeding, and his work is conspicuous for the display of a refined taste. Not only did he ignore what was vulgar or unsightly in sitters, but he invested them with the exaggerated eyes, the Cupid’s bow mouth, and the lovely lines of the figure, all in accordance with the ideal graces of the period. Hoppner’s- portraits have little trace of that intellectual expressiveness which forms the particular and inimitable glory of the creations of Sir Joshua. One of Hoppner’s biographers says of him that his “power of improving what was placed before him, without annihilating resemblance, obtained him a decided preference among the fairer part of fashionable society. In his portraits of children, too, he was fortunate: he was able to realise- and reproduce the freshness and innocence associated with childhood,, while his compositions, irrespective of the beauty of the subject, exhibit the happiest effects of graceful and careless ease. Hoppner’s men mostly look like puppets, not without grace perhaps, but devoid of intellect and with little bone or muscle. In all cases Hoppner’s. colouring is delicate, fresh, transparent, and glowing. Of Hoppner’s personality little need be said. He was born in London, in 1758, and was buried in the cemetery of St. James’s Chapel,. Hampstead Road, in 1810. Like his rival, Lawrence, he had an early taste for music, which was subordinated however to a still stronger bias for for art. From being a chorister at the Chapel Royal, he became in 1775, under Royal auspices, a pupil in the Royal Academy, where he gained a gold medal, dabbled in landscape, and finally settled down as a portrait painter, under much partronage from the Royal Family, becom¬ ing in due course first an Associate and then a full Royal Academician. Owing to the use of defective materials, his original brilliant colouring has much faded; and the best examples of his art are preserved in engravers’ transcripts, of which those republished here are some of the finest. It was in 1803, when he had been for eight years in possession of his final academic distinction, that “ A Select Series of Portraits of Ladies of Rank and Fashion”—seven of which portraits he had painted—was first published. This series is now, after the lapse of nearly a century, placed in the hands of a new generation of con¬ noisseurs of “ types of beauty ” and of the limner’s art. (Byg one (B eauties: The Engraver. F Charles Wilkin —the engraver^ of the whole of this series of portraits of “ Bygone Beauties ”—little is known. He was awarded a premium by the Society of Arts for the skill with which he practised the dot or stippled manner of engraving, of which indeed he was a master. He engraved some fine portraits after Sir Joshua Reynolds and other contemporary artists, including that of Master Henry Hoare (after Sir Joshua) son of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart., from whose grand collection of books, known as the Stourhead Library, was purchased the perfect set of engravings^ of “ Bygone Beauties ” which are here faithfully reproduced. It 1 It will be noticed that Wilkin painted, as well as engraved, three of these “ Beauties." 2 When they change hands, original impressions of these scarce and beautiful prints command from five to six guineas each, or at the rate of from fifty to sixty guineas for the complete series. I only know of one other perfect set, that in the British Museum, which however lacks the protective covers. It will be noticed that the portraits have all the characteristics of skilfully executed chalk drawings ; the lights and shades are tenderly blended; and the work, while free in treatment, is finished in the minutely careful manner characteristic of the time in which Wilkin lived. Stippled or dotted engraving, which I have fully described elsewhere,^ was an art at its perfection about the beginning of the present century, and Wilkin was amongst its ablest illustrators. With the discovery of lithography, the grained method of stipple engraving, as practised by him and a host of contemporaries of the Bartolozzi school, completely died out, and will probably never be revived ; albeit the results achieved by modern stippled engraving, with its mechanically arranged groups of dots in place of the irregular specks of the old method, are hard and utterly unlike what they are supposed to represent —marks left by a more or less freely handled crayon on a piece of rough grained paper. Indeed half the charm of a stippled engraving of the old school lies in these wonderful tone gradations which the modern school seems unable to reproduce. Mr. Wilkin issued a prospectus in 1797, in which he announced the publication by subscription of the “ Select Series of Portraits of Ladies of Rank and Fashion” reproduced in this volume. He says that “in the execution of this work it will be the aim of the proprietor to unite the high finish of painting with the spirit and freedom of drawing. The first number is in such forwardness that it may be promised the public some time in March, and will contain the portraits of Lady Charlotte Buncombe and Lady St. Asaph, a number to be published every four months on the same plan, the prints to be delivered in the order they are subscribed for, and no money will be expected until the delivery of the first number, when half the subscription to the second number is requested to be advanced. Subscriptions to be received at Mr. Hoppner’s, Charles Street, St. James’s Square; Mr. Wilkin’s, ig, Eaton 1 See “ Bartolozzi and His Works,” Vol. i.,p. 82. •Eaton Street, Pimlico ; and at Messrs. Knight & Triphook’s, St. James’s Street. A specimen of the work may be seen at the above mentioned -places.” The prospectus further states that the prices charged for each number—of which five completed the series—would be, proofs one guinea; prints, to subscribers, half-a-guinea, and to non-subscribers, twelve shillings, so that the complete series of portraits—two in each number—would be charged, proofs five guineas and prints two-and-a- half guineas. In the prospectus referred to—stitched in the first number, which appeared in 1797—Mr. Hoppner’s name and address were carefully struck out with ink, and in the pair of portraits first published, and in the wrapper of the second part, the names of the painter and engraver appeared conjointly as publishers, while in the whole of the succeeding portraits Mr. Wilkin’s name appears in the imprint as sole publisher. The Engraver’s promise of publishing a number “ every four months on the same plan,” appears to have been impossible to keep, for we find the second pair of portraits were not ready for subscribers until May, 1799, with this (the second) number Mr. Wilkin inserts a printed slip of apology worded as follows : “ Mr. Wilkin feels himself obliged to apologize to the subscribers to this work, and to the public in general, for not having published the second number sooner, which has been owing to a variety of unforseen and unavoidable accidents. But (as long as he continues his endeavours to make the engravings deserving their attention) though the work may not be so voluminous as he could wish, he hopes it will meet that patronage he has already been honored with, and for which he has the highest sense of gratitude.” The third number was published on June 2nd, 1800 ; the fourth on January ist, 1802 ; and the fifth and final one—by which time Mr. Wilkin had changed his address to 7, Charlotte Street, Pimlico—in May, 1803. “ This relative of mine^ Was she sevenly-and-nme When she died? By the canvas may be seen How she look'd at seventeen^ As a bride. “ Beneath a summer tree., Her maiden reverie Has a charm; Her ringlets are m taste; What an arm! . . what a waist For an arm / ” From Frederick Locker’s “ To My Grandmother,. “suggested by a Picture by Mr. Romney.” / “ Only a seme Remains of them^ like the om^iipotence Of Music, when the inspired voice and lute Languish : ere yet the responses are mute, Which through the deep and labyrinthine soul Like echoes through long caverns, wind and roll." THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lady Charlotte Duncombe, Only Daughter of William, Earl of Dartmouth, by Frances Catharine,, sole Daughter and Heir of Sir Charles Counter Nickoll, K.B., married _ to Charles Duncombe, Esq,, eldest Son of Charles Slingsby Duncombe,.! of Duncombe Park, in the County of York, Esq. From a Painting by John Hoppner, R.A., in the Year 1794, in the possession of the Honourable and Reverend Edward Legge. 'dedicated, by Tei-mission, TO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH, Hy His Lordship's Obedient Humble Servants,. JOHN HOPPNER « AND CHARLES WILKIN. ADY Charlotte Duncombe’s marriage took place in 1795 , She was JLr the only daughter of William, second Earl of Dartmouth. Her husband, after long representing Yorkshire in Parliament, was created Baron Feversham in July, 1826, and died in July, 1841, She had a numerous family. Her eldest son (the second Baron and the father of the third Baron) was created Earl of Feversham in 1868. She had seven; seven other sons, of whom the only survivor is the Hon. Arthur Buncombe, an Admiral reserved. Another was the late Hon. and Very Rev. Augustus Buncombe, the devoted and amiable Bean of York. One of her four daughters became Countess of Eldon. Lady Fever- sham died in 1848. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Charlotte, Viscountess St. Asaph, Eldest Daughter of Algernon, Earl of Beverley, by Isabella Susanna, second Daughter of Peter Burrell, Esq., of Beckenham, in the County of Kent, married to George, Viscount St. Asaph, only son of John, Earl of Ashburnham. From a Painting by John Hoppner, R.A., in the Year i 794 , in the possession of the Right Honourable the Earl of Beverley. ‘Dedicated^ by Termission^ TO THE EARL OF BEVERLEY, Tiy His Lordship's Obi'dient Humble Servants, JOHN HOPPNER AND CHARLES WILKIN. ¥ HE father of the Viscountess St. Asaph was Lord Algernon Percy, 1 afterwards first Earl of Beverley. He was the second son of Hugh, first Duke of Northumberland, of the present creation, and her brother lived to succeed to the Ducal title quite at the end of his long life. She was, therefore, aunt to the present Duke of Northumberland. Her marriage was in 1795, when she became Lord St. Asaph’s second wife. wife. She had six sons and seven daughters, the eldest son being: Bertram, late Earl of Ashburnham, the well-known collector of the Ashburnham manuscripts. The fourth daughter. Lady Jane, is the mother of the poet Swinburne. Her husband. Lord St. Asaph, became Earl of Ashburnham on his father’s death in 1812, and died in 1830. She survived as his widow, and died in 1862. Her maternal grand¬ father, Mr. Peter Burrell, was raised to the Peerage as Lord Gwydyr, and he married Priscilla, in her own right Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby. An interesting account of the rise of the Burrells from the rank of wealthy but untitled country gentlemen to the honours of the Peerage,, partly through a fortunate marriage, will be found in Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall’s gossiping “ Memoirs of My Own Time.” y * THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lady Charlotte Campbell, Youngest Daughter of John, Duke of Argyll, by Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon, and of Argyll, married to John Campbell, Esq., eldest Son of Walter Campbell, Esq., of Shawfield, Lanarkshire. From a Painting by John Hoppner, r.a., in the Year 1796. 'T^edicated, by Termission^ TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, ‘By His Grace s Obedient Humble Servants, JOHN HOPPNER AND CHARLES WILKIN. L ady charlotte Campbell’s mother was one of the two beautiful Misses Gunning (daughters of John Gunning, of Castle Coote, Co. Roscommon), the story of whose arrival in London, and their success in society has often been told. The elder sister became Countess of Coventry. The younger—“ double Duchessed ”—lady, as Horace Walpole called her, was unhappy in her first marriage with the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, owing to her husband’s eccentricities of pride (see the story told in Walford’s “ Tales of our Great Families,” first B first series, vol. I.) She was created in 1776 a Peeress of England, as Baroness Plamilton, of Hambledon, Co. Leicester, and died in Decem¬ ber, 1790. By her first marriage she was the mother of two sons, successively Dukes of Hamilton, and of a daughter married to Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby. By her second marriage with the Duke of Argyll, she had also two sons, successively Dukes of Argyll, and two daughters, of whom the subject of the portrait was the younger. To her first husband. Colonel John Campbell, this lady was married in 1796. In 1819, she took as her second husband, the Rev. Edward Bury; and as Lady Charlotte Bury she acquired fame as a novelist. She was again left a w'idow in 1832, and she died in April, 1861. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Jane Elizabeth, Viscountess Andover, Eldest Daughter of Thomas William Coke, Esq., of Holkham, in the County of Norfolk, by Jane, youngest Daughter of James Lennox Dutton, Esq., of Sherborne, in the County of Gloucester, married to ■Charles Nevinson, Viscount Andover, eldest son of John, Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire. From a Painting by John Hoppner, R.A., in 1799, in possession of Lord Andover. 'dedicated, by Termission, TO THE EARL OF SUFFOLK, Hy His Lordship's Obedient Humble Servants, JOHN HOPPNER AND CHARLES WILKIN. T he father of the Viscountess Andover, so well known as “ Coke of Holkham,” having been for half a century M.P. for Norfolk, and distinguished alike as a politician and a practical agriculturist, was raised to the Peerage in 1837 as Earl of Leicester, having refused any lower title. His father’s name was Roberts, but his maternal great uncle uncle was Sir Thomas Coke, K.B., of Holkham, who was created Earl of Leicester in 1744, Her husband, Lord Andover, was killed by the accidental discharge of his gun. She had married him in 1796, and was left his widow in 1800. In 1806 she married a second time, her husband being Admiral Sir Henry Digby, K.C.B., who died in 1842. She herself died in 1863, at the age of eighty-six. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lady Gertrude Villiers Only Daughter of George, Earl of Grandison, by Lady Gertrude, Daughter to Francis, late Marquis of Hertford. From a Painting by Charles Wilkin, in the Year i8oo, in the possession of the Earl of Grandison. ’dedicated, hy Termission, TO THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD, Ty His Lordship's Most Obedient Humble Servant, CHARLES WILKIN. L ady Gertrude Villiers, daughter and sole heiress of George Villiers, Earl of Grandison, in the Peerage of Ireland, married in 1802 Lord Henry Stuart, fifth son of John, first Marquis of Bute (the favourite Prime Minister of George HI.), by whom she had a daughter, who died unmarried in 1826, and also three sons, of whom the eldest, Henry, took the name of Villiers-Stuart, inheriting the fine estate of Dromana, in the County of Waterford, and was created in 1839 Lord Stuart de Decies—a title now dormant. Lady Gertrude herself died in 1809, only a few days after the death of her husband. Lady Langham, Only Daughter of the Honourable Charles Vane, by Elizabeth, Daughter of Richard Wood, Esq., of Hollin, in the County of York ; married to Sir William Langham, Bart., of Cottesbrooke, Northamptonshire. From a Painting by John Hoppner, R.A. Dedicated, by Dermission, TO THE HONOURABLE FREDERICK VANE, Dy His Most Obedient Humble Servant, CHARLES WILKIN. HE father of Lady Langham, described in the Peerage as of Mount 1 Ida, Norfolk, was a brother of the first Earl of Darlington, who married Lady Grace Fitzroy, daughter of Charles, first Duke of Cleve¬ land (of a former creation) by Barbara Villiers, daughter of Lord Grandison. The Earl’s grandson was created successively Marquis and Duke of Cleveland, and was the father of the present and the late Duke. The Lady herself was married in August, 1795, and died in November, 1809. Her son became Sir William Henry Langham, ninth Baronet, and her daughter married Mr. E. Ayshford Sanford, of Nyne- head Court, Somerset. THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Countess of Euston, Second Daughter of James, Earl of Waldegrave, by Maria, Second Daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, K.B., married to George Henry, Earl of Euston, eldest Son of Augustus Henry, Duke of Grafton. From a Painting by John Hoppner, R.A., in the Year 1798, in the Possession of the Earl of Euston. dedicated, by Termisston, TO THE EARL OF EUSTON, ‘By His Lordship's Obedient Humble Servant, CHARLES WILKIN. HE mother of Charlotte Maria, Countess of Euston, was one of J. the three beautiful Misses Walpole, so famous in their day, one of whom married the Hon. and Right Rev. Dr. F. Keppel, Bishop of Exeter, and the other became the wife of Lionel, fourth Earl of Dysart. Her mother, after the death of Lord Waldegrave, married as her second Iiusband, William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, brother of King George III., by whom she became the mother of William Frederick, last Duke of of Gloucester, who died in 1834. Lady Euston herself did not live to become Duchess of Grafton, as she died in 1808, three years before the accession to the Dukedom of her husband, who survived her till 1844. The Dukes of Grafton are descended, as is well known, from Charles the Second, the mother of the first Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton and Earl of Euston, having been Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland. RIGHT HONOURABLE Lady Catharine Howard, Only Daughter of John, Earl of Suffolk, by Julia, Countess of Suffolk. From a Painting by Charles Wilkin, in the Year 1800, in the possession of the Earl of Suffolk. T)edicated, by Termission, TO THE EARL OF SUFFOLK, ‘By His Lordship's Obedient Humble Servant, CHARLES WILKIN. L ady Catharine Howard married the Rev. George Bisset, was left a widow in November, 1828, and died in 1850. Her ladyship was the only daughter of John, fifteenth Earl of Suffolk and eighth Earl of Berkshire, by his marriage with Julia, daughter of John Gaskarth, Esq., of Penrith, Cumberland. THE DUCHESS OF RUTLAND, HER GRACE THE Duchess of Rutland Second Daughter of Frederick, Earl of Carlisle, by Elizabeth, Countess of Carlisle, Daughter of the Marquis of Stafford. Married to John, Duke of Rutland. From a Painting by John Hoppner, R.A., in 1798) in the possession of the Earl of Carlisle. ^edicated^ by Termission, TO THE DUKE OF RUTLAND. ‘By His Grace’s Most Obedient Humble Servant., CHARLES WILKIN. HIS Duchess of Rutland was the mother of the present Duke of i. Rutland, of Lord John Manners, and of the late Lord George Man¬ ners, as well as of four daughters, of whom the eldest married Mr. Andrew R. Drummond, of Cadlands, Hants ; the second achieved fame as a novelist and poetess under the name of Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley the third married Earl Jermyn, afterwards second Marquis of Bristol the fourth married Rev. F. J. Norman, Rector of Bottesford, Lincoln¬ shire. The Duchess and her husband entertained the Prince Regent and other Members of the Royal Family at Belvoir Castle; and thc}^ were ■were also the warm-hearted patrons of the poet Crabbe. The Duchess of Rutland is represented by Greville in his Memoirs as having helped, by her want of good taste, in conjunction with the architect, Sir John Thurston, to spoil the magnificent Castle of Belvoir, the pride and glory of the Eastern Midlands. The injudicious alterations which were made during the Regency were certainly carried out under her Grace s auspices; but it must be remembered that the principles of Gothic architecture, whether ecclesiastical or secular, whether applied to Churches or to Castles and domestic dwellings in general, had for the time passed quite out of mind. Perhaps, therefore, Greville hit the Duchess rather undeserved as well as hard blows. Her Grace, who was held to be one of the handsomest and most popular women of her time, died in 1825. LADY GERTRUDE FITZPATRICK 4 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick; Daughter of John, Earl of Upper Ossory, by Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory. From a Picture painted by Charles Wilkin in 1802. T>edicated, by ’’Permission^ TO THE EARL OF UPPER OSSORY, ‘By His Lordship's Most Obedient Humble Servant, CHARLES WILKIN. L ady Gertrude Fitzpatrick’s mother was the correspondent of Horace Walpole, to whom he addressed many of his most witty and amusing letters on art and literature. Lady Gertrude’s father, the Earl of Upper Ossory, died in 1818, when his English and Irish titles became extinct. His lordship bequeathed his property of Ampthill Park to Lord Holland, and after him to the Duke of Bedford. The brother of the present Duke, Lord Odo Russell, has lately been created Baron Ampthill. Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick lived and died unmarried, as did her elder sister. Lady Anne, who was born in 1770.