GEORGE VERTUE, F.S.A. (1684-1756)
PORTRAIT OF MATTHEW PRIOR ESQ., BUST-LENGTH
After Jonathan Richardson's portrait of 1718
Signed with the artist's initials l.l.
Watercolour & bodycolour on card
9 x 6.5 cm | Framed: 15 x 12 cm
PROVENANCE(Likely), The Artist's Studio Sale, Ford's, London, 17.05.1757, probably lot 45 (Two ditto [heads], of Mr Pope and Mr Prior, by Ditto [Mr Vertue], sold for £1.10 | or lot 34(a) (Two drawings of Milton and Prior, in frames and glasses...) [sold for £0.7]
[N.B. The former lot featured in the section 'Curious Limnings and Miniatures, in Frames and Glasses, which category would seem to be most appropriate for the present work, whereas the latter lot was featured under Models, Seals, Impressions, Crayons, &c.]
(On the basis of the above), Robert Langford, his sale, Christie's, London, 15.10.1785, lot 64 (Two ditto [miniatures], Prior and Pope), sold for £1.5 to 'Brown';
Anon. sale, Christie's, South Kensington, 10.12.1985, lot 55;
David and Sandy Fuller, Cambridgeshire (?) (until 2025)
Richardson's portrait of the famous poet and statesman Matthew Prior (1624-1671) was well-known to connoisseurs and scholars of the thanks to the numerous copies, both painted and engraved, that circulated after its creation. Indeed, the portrait was 'one of Richardson's most successful paintings.' [1]
The original was commissioned by Prior's friend Edward, Lord Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford, and is now part of the collection at Welbeck Abbey (see fig. I), with a second autograph version given by Harley to the Bodleian Libraries in 1723 (see fig. II) and a third owned by Christ Church, Oxford. Vertue himself produced an engraving after the painting, published in 1719 (fig. III), which was (as one would expect) sponsored by Lord Harley. Prior, who described Richardson's portrait as 'excellt', was very impressed by Vertue's engraving, noting in a letter to Harley, 'Vertue has brought the proof of the portrait, which I and all that see it think to be mighty well done; he has really surpassed anything that I ever saw of his graving.' [2] Although Vertue's print was published under the authority of Harley, sometime afterwards (likely after Harley's death) several versions appeared in the London trade of varying, and always inferior quality to Vertue's.
In his notes on the pictures at Wimpole Hall taken on the 12th September 1724, George Vertue recorded that Lord Harley also owned Bernard Lens' watercolour on vellum portrait of Matthew Prior, [3] and we know that this example was done by the young Lens 'after a French Pictor'...[4], likely referring to Hyacinthe Rigaud's portrait of 1699 done in Paris and owned by Harley. [5]
It seems that the present work (though it may have been intended for Lord Harley) remained with Vertue until his death, as it was not among the small number sold off by the executors of Lord Harley in 1742 and was not part of Matthew Prior's Disbursement after his death either. This is not altogether unexpected, as Vertue's posthumous sale of 1757 featured more than 20 such miniatures of notable figures.
George Vertue was one of the foremost British engravers and antiquarians of the 18th century, but was also a fashionable portrait artist who mixed as well with his fellow artists as he did with scholars. Born in London, he was apprenticed at 13 to a French engraver specialising in heraldry, who became bankrupt and returned to France. After this, he worked seven years under Michael Vandergucht, before operating independently. He was amongst the first members of Godfrey Kneller's London Academy of Painting, and Kneller employed him early on to engrave his portraits. It was there that Vertue became a pupil of Thomas Gibson, another leading portrait painter of the day.
From c.1713 on, Vertue became a devoted scholar of the history of art in Britain, an occupation to which he would devote much of his time for the rest of his life, accumulating about forty volumes of notebooks during his investigations. As part of his research, Vertue made numerous trips around the British Isles, in the company of enthusiasts such as Edward, Lord Harley, Lord Coleraine and others, many of which were recorded in Vertue's highly detailed drawings and notes. In 1717 he was appointed official engraver to the Society of Antiquaries, the same year as its formal foundation, and he was the only engraver to be made a Fellow of the Society. As the Society's engraver, he provided the majority of the illustrations for its Journal, titled Vetusta Monumenta, continuing to do so until his death. These ranged in subject from natural history and the sciences to cartography, architectural history and the study of gems and intaglios. Vertue was also a member of the infamous Rose and Crown Club, together with William Hogarth, Peter Tillemans and other artists and connoisseurs, and he kept some records of its meetings and activities which have proved useful to latter-day scholars of the period.
After the death of Lord Harley, his most ardent supporter, Vertue was patronised by the Duchess of Portland and several other prominent members of the peerage and aristocracy. He also produced a catalogue detailing the collection formed by Charles I, at the request of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who was also a keen patron his engravings.
NOTES
[1] S. von der Geest, 'The Reasoning Eye. Jonathan Richardson's portrait theory and practice in the context of the English Enlightenment', DPhil thesis, UCL, London (2005), p.33
[2] Quoted by D. Alexander, George Vertue as an Engraver, in The Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 70 (2008), p.281; original letter, Manuscripts of the Marquis of Bath...at Longlet, III, Prior Papers, 1908, p.476
[3] The Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 30 (1951-52), Vertue Note Books Vol. VI, p.18, see Appendix for reproduction.
[4] The half-length portrait of Prior cost 20 guineas; see Richard W. Goulding, “The Welbeck Abbey Miniatures,” Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 4 (1914–15), p.41. More generally on Lens’s relationship with the Harley family, see Kim Sloan, ‘A Noble Art’: Amateur Artists and Drawing Masters c. 1600–1800, exh. cat., London, British Museum (2000), pp.114–15.
[5] No.237 in the Welbeck Collection of Pictures.
NOTES ON THE SITTER
Matthew Prior (1664-1721) was one of Britain's foremost poets and diplomats, whose chief political legacy was his crucial contributions to securing the Treaties of Utrecht, which were pivotal in preventing French hegemony in Europe (until the rise of Napoleon) and brought an end to the War of the Spanish Succession. Prior was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, and moved with his father to London at a young age, whereupon he was sent to Westminster School. Vertue's father died before George could complete his education, and so he withdrew from the school and worked briefly for his uncle and aunt at one of their taverns nearby. A chance discovery of the young boy reading Horace by Lord Dorset led to the earl funding the remainder of his education, which in turn enabled Vertue to read for his B.A. at St John's, Cambridge.
Prior established himself as a well-known satirist with his publication, in collaboration with his school and university friend the Earl of Halifax (Charles Montagu), of the City Mouser and Country Mouse, a riposte to Dryden's The Hind and the Panther. Prior was also known for his poetry, though his career would eventually leave little time for him to concentrate in earnest on this, but his gift for the art served as a valuable asset in his rise through the ranks of the Establishment. Later on in his life, Prior would continue to use poetry as a means of maintaining his status and influence. The success of City Mouse... brought Montagu a promotion as a diplomat, and Prior followed him three years later in becoming secretary to the British embassy at the Hague. Possibly thanks to Montagu's influence, Prior became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber some years after this, and the King entrusted him as a secretary to the plenipotentiaries who concluded the Peace of Ryswick, the treaties which ended the 'Nine Years War' between France and the Dutch Republic.
Prior had made a name for himself in diplomatic circles as an excellent French speaker and diplomat, and he was sent to Paris in 1698 to wait in attendance on the English ambassador in the city. Prior had clearly impressed his superiors and the King during this time in Paris, as he was made under-secretary of state upon his return to London, and succeeded the philosopher John Locke as a commissioner of trade. He sat for Parliament in 1701 (for East Grinstead) but, as was so often the case, the political sands were shifting beneath his feet, and his friends Montagu and Lords Somers and Orford were soon out of favour and impeached for their roles in the Partition Treaty that was a precursor to the Treaty of Utrecht.
Prior kept his head down as a result of the temporary fall from grace of his aristocratic Tory friends but, after almost a decade, he found himself back in favour, as the Tories came to power in 1710. With Queen Anne now on the throne and his new patron the Earl of Oxford, a favourite of the Queen's and her chief minister, Prior became one of the most prominent diplomats engaged in negotiations with the French, a role he held for several years. Upon the Queen's death and the rise to power of the Whigs, Prior was impeached by the first Prime Minister, Walpole, who kept him under custody for two years. This period of confinement produced Prior's longest humorous poem, Alma, which was published by subscription in 1718. The work was a hit, with the subscription earning Prior 4000 guineas, and his old friend the Earl of Oxford gifted him £4,000 around the same time, which enabled Prior to spend the final years of his life in considerable comfort.