DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0093
THE ROYAL ACADEMY 45
of “ The Conjurer,” as you call it. I don’t wonder they turned it out of
the Academy; and pray, what business had you to bring Angelica into it ?
You know it was your intention to ridicule her, whatever your printed paper
and your affidavits may say. However, you may depend upon it, she won’t
forget it, if Sir Joshua does.’ ” Hone appears to have expostulated with
Noll ekens, told him he was ill-tempered, and announced that he had brought
him two prints which he had recently purchased, as a present. Nollekens was
not going to be bought over in this fashion, replying, “ Well, I don’t care.
You don’t bribe me in that way. I know what you are going to do to-night,
and I will vote against you, so you may take your prints back again.” Smith
explains that Hone, whom he called “ the enamel painter,” had lately com-
menced oil-painting on a large scale, and in that branch of art he had not
been as successful as he had with regard to miniatures and enamels. It was
then he found that Reynolds was carrying away the chief patronage, and this
made him so jealous that, Smith says, “ he took every opportunity of endeavour-
ing to defame him,” with the result that has just been stated. Whether the
exhibition was a success, we cannot tell. Smith says the advertisement
appeared in several of the public papers; that the pictures were to be seen
every day, Sundays excepted, from ten in the morning until seven in the
evening, that admission was one shilling, and the catalogues were given away
gratis.
The whole thing was annoying to Angelica, and it did Hone also a great
deal of harm. The picture of “ The Conjurer,” according to Redford, passed
into the possession of a French nobleman, who in 1790 re-sold it at Christie’s
for fifteen guineas to a dealer named Knight. It cannot now be traced.
Angelica had always had a penchant for lengthy titles to her pictures, and
in 1776, when she started to exhibit some English historical scenes, she indulged
this to a considerable extent. She sent in five pictures; two were taken from
Rapin’s History, one from Vol. HI, p. 129, “ The gentle Eleonora sucking the
venom out of the wound which Edward I, her royal consort, received with a
poisoned dagger from an assassin in Palestine,” and the second from Vol. V,
p. 26, “ Lady Elizabeth Grey imploring of Edward IV the restitution of her
deceased husband’s lands, forfeited in the dispute between the Houses of
York and Lancaster.” With these were two other pictures, one entitled
“ Patience,” taken from Mason’s Caractacus, p. 15 : “ Her meek hands
folded on her modest breast, In mute submission lifts th’ adoring eye Ev’n to
the storm that wrecks her,” and one from Tasso, Vol. II, Canto 16, “ Armida
in vain endeavours with her entreaties to prevent Rinaldo’s departure.” With
these she sent in the portrait of a gentleman, whole length, which cannot be
identified. In the following year there are five more pictures, two scenes
from the JEneid, “ Sylvia lamenting over the favourite stag wounded by
Ascanius ” (Book VII)—a very popular subject with Angelica, and the other
Dido (Book IV). She also sent in a picture of “ Maria,” from Sterne’s
Sentimental Journey, which she reproduced over and over again; a
of “ The Conjurer,” as you call it. I don’t wonder they turned it out of
the Academy; and pray, what business had you to bring Angelica into it ?
You know it was your intention to ridicule her, whatever your printed paper
and your affidavits may say. However, you may depend upon it, she won’t
forget it, if Sir Joshua does.’ ” Hone appears to have expostulated with
Noll ekens, told him he was ill-tempered, and announced that he had brought
him two prints which he had recently purchased, as a present. Nollekens was
not going to be bought over in this fashion, replying, “ Well, I don’t care.
You don’t bribe me in that way. I know what you are going to do to-night,
and I will vote against you, so you may take your prints back again.” Smith
explains that Hone, whom he called “ the enamel painter,” had lately com-
menced oil-painting on a large scale, and in that branch of art he had not
been as successful as he had with regard to miniatures and enamels. It was
then he found that Reynolds was carrying away the chief patronage, and this
made him so jealous that, Smith says, “ he took every opportunity of endeavour-
ing to defame him,” with the result that has just been stated. Whether the
exhibition was a success, we cannot tell. Smith says the advertisement
appeared in several of the public papers; that the pictures were to be seen
every day, Sundays excepted, from ten in the morning until seven in the
evening, that admission was one shilling, and the catalogues were given away
gratis.
The whole thing was annoying to Angelica, and it did Hone also a great
deal of harm. The picture of “ The Conjurer,” according to Redford, passed
into the possession of a French nobleman, who in 1790 re-sold it at Christie’s
for fifteen guineas to a dealer named Knight. It cannot now be traced.
Angelica had always had a penchant for lengthy titles to her pictures, and
in 1776, when she started to exhibit some English historical scenes, she indulged
this to a considerable extent. She sent in five pictures; two were taken from
Rapin’s History, one from Vol. HI, p. 129, “ The gentle Eleonora sucking the
venom out of the wound which Edward I, her royal consort, received with a
poisoned dagger from an assassin in Palestine,” and the second from Vol. V,
p. 26, “ Lady Elizabeth Grey imploring of Edward IV the restitution of her
deceased husband’s lands, forfeited in the dispute between the Houses of
York and Lancaster.” With these were two other pictures, one entitled
“ Patience,” taken from Mason’s Caractacus, p. 15 : “ Her meek hands
folded on her modest breast, In mute submission lifts th’ adoring eye Ev’n to
the storm that wrecks her,” and one from Tasso, Vol. II, Canto 16, “ Armida
in vain endeavours with her entreaties to prevent Rinaldo’s departure.” With
these she sent in the portrait of a gentleman, whole length, which cannot be
identified. In the following year there are five more pictures, two scenes
from the JEneid, “ Sylvia lamenting over the favourite stag wounded by
Ascanius ” (Book VII)—a very popular subject with Angelica, and the other
Dido (Book IV). She also sent in a picture of “ Maria,” from Sterne’s
Sentimental Journey, which she reproduced over and over again; a