Volume 1

The Farington diary / edited by James Greig.

  • Joseph Farington
Date:
[1922?-1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Farington diary / edited by James Greig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    127/464 (page 83)
    Steevens, mentioned the Revd. Mr [Clayton Mordaunt] Cracherodes library as being very valuable.* Steevens brought Boydell a sheet of letter press which He had prepared to be inserted in the European magazine describing a picture of Shake¬ speare [the Felton] lately brought to public notice and which has been engraved for Richardson of Castle Street. Steevens, gives no credit to the statue of Rysbrack [?Scheemakers or Roubilliac], as being a like¬ ness of Shakespeare, and spoke with disbelief of Malones recommenda¬ tion of the picture [The Chandos] from which it was taken, and from which picture [Ozias] Humphry made a copy for Malone.—J. Boydells appro¬ bation of the picture from which Richardson has published a print has caused Steevens to become again friendly with the Boydells, with whom He had been cool sometime, on acct. as He said of their unnecessarily hurrying him, abt. their publication of Shakespeare. 1795 January 1.—Yenn [R.A.] said that a few days after West delivered his last discourse, Yenn Happened to be at the Queens Palace. The King asked him if He was at the Academy on Wednesday the loth.— Yenn said He was. The King replied “ I suppose you had a good deal of Hack, Hack, Hack ” alluding to Wests pronunciation of the word Academy, which He pronounces JY^c^ademy.—the King further said West had given tickets to several persons abt. the Court.—The whole ex¬ pressed the smile of the King at Wests pretending to turn Orator. West, reed. £1300 for his large picture in the Chapel at Greenwich, and 5 guineas each for 25 drawings which He made.—On finishing the work West gave a dinner at Greenwich to many gentlemen belonging to the Hospital See. Yenn was there.—West spoke of the Royal Aca¬ demy and himself in such a way as to make it appear as if He was, under the King, the principal cause of the institution. Yenn, jealous of the honor of Sir Wm. Chambers [R.A.], his old master, asserted that He was the great mover of that business. On the 4th of June, 1793, Yenn attended at the Queens Palace, along with many others in the morning out of respect to the King. Copley was there.-—The King mentioned the Exhibition of that year & said it was the worst that had been made since the foundation of the Royal Academy. He said Hoppner and Beechey had distinguished themselves, but that Lawrence was fallen of. The Academy Club, I went to,—Hoppnerf told me that His Father & Mother were Germans : His Father was a Surgeon. Hoppner was * Cracherode (1730-1799) was the son of Colonel Mordaunt Cracherode, who commanded the Marines in Anson’s voyage round the world. He was a curate of Binsey, near Oxford, but his life was devoted to book collecting. A fortune of about £3,000 a year enabled him to haunt the London bookshops, such as Elmsly’s, in the Strand, and Tom Payne’s, by the “ Mews-Gate,” and accumulate some 4,500 volumes of the greatest rarity and beauty. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries, and a Trustee of the British Museum. Cracherode was buried in Westminster Abbey, and he bequeathed his collections to the nation, with the exception of two books, which ultimately rejoined the others in the British Museum. f As in the case of Mrs. Gainsborough, it was claimed for Hoppner that he had Royal British blood in his veins. His own story related above should put an end for ever to that romantic tale.