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.

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    Craig* wrote me a letter requesting my interest with the arranging Committee in favour of two drawings which He has not sent to the exhibi¬ tion. In it He explains in a minute manner the bad effect of hanging a drawing with the shadow side towards the window. Westall yesterday evening called on Smirke to remark the same thing, and to request it might be attended to in the disposal of his drawings. Smirke called in the evening. The Pictures sent for exhibition were received to-day. A greater number were refused than has been remembered. He is afraid there will be an indifferent exhibition. April 9.—Hoppner is likely to get most reputation by his Portraits of any in that line. Smirke speaks of a Bachanalian picture by Pelegrini [Domenico Pellegrini, a Venetian who settled in London in 1792] as very good. It is painted for Sir Abraham Hume.—Morland indifferent this year. Shee and Rising fallen off. Beechy not remarkable. April 11. —Lawrence offered to paint my portrait for Mrs. Farington. Dined at the Club.—We had conversation enforcing the necessity of being circumspect in the invitations to the dinner at the Academy. Copley said it wd. be a good exhibition. He spoke highly of Sir George Beaumonts Landscape, which He said wd. have done credit to any artist of any country.—Also well of [N.] Dances landscape, which he said was of the Camera Obscura kind, a direct imitation. Mr. West said the King told him last Sunday, that He thought Gains¬ borough Duponts [nephew of Thomas Gainsborough] portrait of him was the best likeness that had been painted. * William Marshall Craig, said to have been a nephew of James Thomson, the poet, contributed at intervals to the Royal Academy between 1788 and 1827* He came from Manchester to London in 1791, became painter in water-colours to the Queen in 1810, and miniature painter to the Duke and Duchess of York. A draughtsman on wood, he published in 1821 “ Lectures on Drawing, Painting, and Engraving.” The Victoria and Albert Museum has a picture by him, entitled “ The Wounded Soldier.” Souvenir of another Diarist The Rev. M. de la Hey, Cirencester, states : “ I am interested in miniatures, and at the sale of the Farington possessions bought a miniature by Engle- heart inscribed * Mrs. Catherine Green of Medham, Isle of Wight.’ I am venturing to write and ask you if you would be kind enough to let me know if you come across anything about the lady in Farington’s Diaries.” [As yet we have found no reference to this lady in the Diaries, but there can be little doubt that she was Catherine, daughter of General Hartcup, and wife of Thomas Green (1769-1825), who was a barrister and mis¬ cellaneous writer. He is remembered best by his “ Diary of a Lover of Literature,” extracts from which were published in 1810. The following is an entry from it under date April 22, 1818 : “ Much chat with Mrs. Dupuis respecting Gainsborough, who lived here [in Ipswich] . . . very lively, gay, and dissipated. His wife Margaret, natural daughter of the Duke of Bedford. [This story is incorrect.] Rapid in painting—his creations sudden.” The reference to the Isle of Wight in the inscription on the miniature is accounted for by the vivid and happy descriptions of that island given by Green in his Diary. A Mystery Solved The Editor of the Connoisseur is to be congratulated on securing for publication in the February number of his magazine a new batch of letters relating to Thomas Gainsborough’s life from about 1751 to 1770, four years before he left Bath. These letters also make clear the identity of the Duke who granted the annuity of £200 paid to the artist’s wife, who was known as Margaret Burr. Hitherto her parentage has been veiled in mystery ; even the date and place of her marriage were unknown until revealed for the first time in the Morning Post in October, 1921. It was a clandestine wedding, solemnised on July 15, 1746, at Dr. Keith’s chapel, in Curzon street, Mayfair, where the marriage ceremony was performed without licence, publicatio of banns, or consent of parents. Margaret Burr’s origin, as we have said, was always in doubt. She was, the chroniclers said, “ a pretty Scots girl of low birth,” her“ brother was a commercial traveller for Gainsborough’s father,” she “ was natural daughter of the Duke of Bedford ” ; Sir Walter Armstrong saw a strong resemblance between the Duke’s