- Ozias Humphrey
-
The "Rice Portrait" by Humphry, claimed to be Jane Austen ca. 1790-1810
Ozias Humphry (or Humphrey) (8 September 1742 – 9 March 1810) was a leading English painter of portrait miniatures, later oils and pastels, of the 18th century. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791, and in 1792 he was appointed Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King (i.e. pastels).
Contents
Education
Born and schooled in Honiton, Devon, Humphrey was attracted by the gallery of casts opened by the Duke of Richmond and came to London to study art at Shipley's school. He also studied art in Bath (under Samuel Collins, taking over his practice in 1762); in Bath, he lodged with Thomas Linley. As a young artist, his talent was encouraged by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds, among others. His problems with his sight, which ultimately led to blindness, began in the early 1770s and forced him to paint larger works in oils and pastel.[1]
Portrait of a Gentleman in Pastels by Humphry, circa 1780Italy
He travelled to Italy in 1773 with his great friend George Romney, stopping en route at Knole, near Sevenoaks in Kent, where the Duke of Dorset commissioned several works from him. His stay in Italy lasted until 1777.
On his return, his numerous subjects included George Stubbs (1777), fellow academician Dominic Serres, the chemist Joseph Priestley, and a portrait claimed to be of the teenage Jane Austen, from perhaps as early as 1790 (clothing styles suggest a later date), known as the "Rice" portrait after a later owner, though this has always been a controversial attribution of the sitter.[2] This failed to reach its minimum estimate in a Christies auction in April 2007, and was withdrawn from sale.[3] His pupils included John Opie. He compiled a fifty-page manuscript A Memoir of George Stubbs, based on what Stubbs had related to him; it is the only contemporary biography. This was edited and privately published in the 1870s and republished in 2005.[4] He also knew William Blake and commissioned copies of some of his illustrated books. At least one of Blake's letters to him is a significant document for Blake's biographers.[5]
Ozias Humphry, RA, 1742-1810, Portrait of Hyder Beg Khan, Dated 1786, Watercolour on ivory V&A Museum no. Evans 142[6] Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonIndia
Humphrey is in the top right of this painting Colonel Mordaunt's cockfight.[7]From 1785 to 1787, he travelled to India, producing many miniatures and sketches. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1791. In 1792 he was appointed Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King. Most of his many portraits of the Royal Family are still in the Royal Collection.[8]
His sight finally failed in 1797, and he died in 1810 in Hampstead, north London.
The bulk of his possessions came into the hands of his natural son, William Upcott, the book collector. From him the British Museum acquired a large number of papers relating to Humphry. He is alluded to in some lines by Hayley.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Government Art Collection
- ^ Reuters story, via Yahoo News
- ^ Reuters story, and picture
- ^ A Memoir of George Stubbs, Ozias Humphry (Author), Joseph Mayer (Editor), Anthony Mould (Introduction), Pallas Athene Arts; New Ed edition 2005, ISBN 1843680025, ISBN 978-1843680024. Long extracts were appended to the Tate Gallery's George Stubbs, Anatomist and Animal Painter Egerton, Judy; Taylor, Basil, 1976
- ^ Letter to Humphrey in Smith, J T, Nollekens and his Times, 1829, "Blake" volume 2 p. 489
- ^ "Portrait of Hyder Beg Khan". Paintings & Drawings. Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/portrait-miniatures-india/. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
- ^ Colonel Mordaunt's Cockfight, Johann Zoffany, Tate Gallery, accessed 18 April 2010
- ^ 3 images online
- "Collection of letters between Mary Nesbitt and Ozias Humphrey". Royal Academy of Arts. http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Names%C2%A0A-Z&person=17300. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
External links
- 7 works by Humphry (and many prints after him) from the National Portrait Gallery
Categories:- 1742 births
- 1810 deaths
- English painters
- People from Honiton
- Portrait artists
- Portrait miniaturists
- Royal Academicians
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
