Middle Room.—North End.
Mannings # 549
Current title: "Samuel Dyer (1725-1772)"
Private Collection
Samuel Dyer, translator and writer, was a close friend of both Joshua Reynolds and Samuel Johnson. The youngest son of dissenters—Joseph Dyer, a wealthy London jeweler, and his wife Mary—Samuel became a passionate scholar, well versed in French, Italian, German, Hebrew, and natural philosophy.
Together with Samuel Johnson, Dyer was one of the original members of the Ivy Lane Club. Later, he also took an active part in the later Literary Club, a dining club co-founded in the 1760s by Samuel Johnson and Reynolds. In 1766, Dyer was elected to the Council of the Royal Society. Upon his death in 1772, Reynolds was appointed executor of Dyer's estate.
While Johnson bought a copy of Dyer's engraved portrait to hang in his own house, Dyer was not a famous man. Reynolds observed that, although Dyer was "a very judicious and learned Critic, and held in the highest estimation in our Club … not having published anything his name is not much known in the world" (ODNB).
The learned Dyer looks a little out of place besides "Laughing girl" and seems fitter company for fellow club-members Samuel Johnson (No. 130) and Oliver Goldsmith (No. 131) in the next room.
Further Reading:
Entry for "Dyer, Samuel (bap. 1721, d. 1772), translator," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford UP, 2004; online edn. 2006).
Middle Room.—North End.
Mannings # 2074
Current title: "Girl Leaning on a Pedestal"
Untraced
Multiple studio versions of this picture exist. A second version hangs at No. 36 in the North Room. According to Mannings, Reynolds originally painted this picture for the Polygraphic Society, a commercial enterprise in the mechanical duplication of old masters.
For an analysis of the girl's potentially provocative gesture, see the notes at No. 36.
This girl may also be the model in "The fortune-teller," another duplicate in the exhibit (see No. 12 and No. 124). Note how the curators of the British Institution placed all such versions at a great remove from each other in the Reynolds exhibit, so as to minimize the sense of duplication.
Middle Room.—North End.
Mannings # 2169
Current title: "Theory"
Location: Untraced
When this painting was sold at an 1807 auction, it was described as "An Allegorical Figure, representing the Theory of Painting, a truly capital picture by the immortal Reynolds, the design is grand and pleasing, coloured with surprising richness and brilliancy of effect" (Mannings).
This picture is likely a replica of the central panel for the library ceiling of the Royal Academy of Arts at Summerset House, designed by William Chambers (his portrait is No. 13). Giuseppe Baretti (his portrait is No. 119) described that ceiling panel: "Theory of the Art under the form of an elegant and majestic female, seated in the clouds, and looking upwards, as contemplating the Heavens" (Mannings).
Reynolds' own views on art theory and practice are presented in the fifteen Discourses that he wrote almost annually between 1769 and 1790. The first collected edition of all fifteen, together with Reynolds' other writings, appeared in 1797. The Discourses do not, however, make for a seamless, or even consistent, theory.
Reynolds' Discourses is listed in the Godmersham Library Catalogue—the inventory of books owned by Austen's brother Edward Knight.
Middle Room.—North End.
Mannings # 1695
Current title: "Jane Stanhope, Countess of Harrington (1755-1824)"
Location: Huntington Art Gallery
Jane was the daughter of Sir John Fleming, first baronet, of Brompton Park in Middlesex, and Jane Coleman. In 1779, she married Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington (1753-1829), becoming the Countess of Harrington. Together they had eight sons and three daughters. As Countess, Jane was a well-known society hostess and Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte.
The position of her right hand resembles a strong rhetorical gesture usually reserved for male portraits. Some suggests that Reynolds painted her in this pose to direct the viewer's attention to a planned matching portrait of her husband, although not completed until five years later. Whatever the original intent, the British Institution's curators hung her portrait as if to momentarily redirect the gaze of visitors in the Middle Room, through the central archway, back to the portrait of the King on the starting wall.
Just to the right of Lady Harrington, on the adjoining wall, hangs "King Lear" (No. 41). Her hand gesture would thus appear to contribute to the exhibit's soft parallel between these two mad kings (see notes at No. 41). Perhaps the fact that the Harringtons received royal favor from both George III and his son, the Prince Regent, emboldened the curators to place her portrait thus.
Further Reading:
Entry for "Stanhope, Charles, third earl of Harrington (1753–1829), army officer," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford UP, 2004; online edn, 2008).
Middle Room.—North End.
Mannings # 816, a copy
Current title: "Lady Emma Hamilton (d. 15 Jan. 1815)"
Location: Private Collection
Raised by her mother, Mary Lyon, the young Emma became the mistress of several English noblemen, including Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh and Charles Francis Greville, who first introduced her to painter George Romney. As Romney's muse, Emma was soon celebrated for her beauty—and immortalized by many painters, including Reynolds, Lawrence, Hoppner, and Kauffmann.
In 1786, Greville sent his mistress to his uncle Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), then Ambassador to Naples, allegedly in exchange for payment to cover debts. Emma became Hamilton's hostess, assisting him on diplomatic missions. Although a great deal older than Emma, Hamilton married her in 1791. As Lady Hamilton, Emma became famous for her "attitudes," a series of still poses based upon the classical artifacts collected by her husband.
In 1793, Lady Hamilton met Captain Horatio Nelson, a celebrity in his own right. Theirs became arguably the world's best-known love affair. At first, Nelson accompanied the Hamiltons on their travels. Emma and Nelson, who had at least two children together, lost public sympathy after Nelson moved into a country cottage with the Hamiltons in 1802 and officially separated from his wife. Sir William died in 1803; Nelson died a hero at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
Just before expiring, Nelson famously declared, "I leave Emma Lady Hamilton… as a legacy to my King and Country." Under Nelson's will, Emma received a modest sum and annuity, but she quickly found herself in debt.
In the spring of 1813, just prior to the opening of the British Institution show, Emma was arrested for debt and consigned to the King's Bench open prison in Southwark—where she remained for a year before fleeing to Calais. Citing Nelson's final wishes and her own diplomatic services in Naples, she pleaded with the Prince Regent for help. While he did dine with her in prison, he did not pay her debts. Emma perished in Calais in 1815, survived by her daughter Horatia.
Further Reading:
Entry for "Hamilton [née Lyon], Emma, Lady Hamilton (bap. 1765, d. 1815), social celebrity and artist's model," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford UP, 2004; online edn, 2007).
Entry for "Nelson, Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805), naval officer" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford UP, 2004; online edn, 2009).
Middle Room.—North End.
Mannings # 1754
Current title: "Thomas Tomkins (1743-1816)"
Location: Guildhall Art Gallery, London
A professional copyist and calligrapher, Tomkins was, like Dyer (No. 80), a friend of both Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds. The latter once referred to Tomkins as "a brother artist" (ODNB).
Nothing of his early life is known, but he eventually became a writing-master, teaching decorative penmanship and creating ornamental transcripts of important documents and public speeches. After publishing several engraved copy-books, he became a literary author with Poems on Various Subjects (1807), which was successful enough to go through several editions.
Further Reading:
Entry for "Tomkins, Thomas (1743–1816), writing-master," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford UP, 2004).
North Room