Property of a gentleman Attributed to Angelica Kauffman RA ...

Hammer

£32,000

Property of a gentleman

Attributed to Angelica Kauffman RA (1741 - 1807)
A portrait of James Hugh Smith Barry
Oil on canvas 

Provenance:

• James Hugh Smith Barry;


• and thence by descent.

Dimensions:
(Canvas) 40.5 in. (H) x 31.5 in. (W)
(Frame) 51.25 in. (H) x 41.5 in. (W)

James Hugh Smith Barry, eldest son of Hon. John Smith-Barry (1725-84) and his wife Dorothy, elder daughter and co-heiress of Hugh Smith of Weald Hall (Essex), born 25 December 1748 and baptised at Great Budworth, 18 January 1748/9. Educated at Eton (1762-67) and Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1767; created MA 1770) and then travelled in Europe and the Middle East, 1771-76.

In Italy, he visited Rome, Naples and Sicily before travelling on with a group of friends including Lord Winchilsea and Thomas Dashwood, on a two-year tour to Malta, Constantinople and Egypt. On returning to Italy he saw Capua and Florence. During his travels he bought works of art, classical sculpture and medals 'on a lavish scale but with little discernment', although his collection included a number of important works, including the Jenkins vase (now in the National Museum of Wales).

His travels were curtailed when his father stopped payment of his bills and he returned to England via Dresden and Paris in considerable debt. He travelled again in 1779, visiting Florence, Rome (where Angelica Kauffman painted his portrait) and Naples. In 1781 he bought a statue of Zeus from the Villa d'Este for £600, which was probably his most important purchase (now in the Getty Museum in California).

After inheriting his father's estates and considerable wealth in 1784 he became increasingly reclusive and lived chiefly at Fota, although his collections were divided mainly between Belmont and Marbury. J.L. de Bougrenet de la Tocnaye, who visited him at Fota in 1796-97 recorded that 'his riches have so surfeited him and disgusted him with the world that he has almost totally retired from society, and lives rather a melancholy life in his island'.

He was High Sheriff of Cheshire, 1795-96, but otherwise took no part in public affairs. He was unmarried, but had acknowledged issue, by his mistress Ann Tanner (b. c. 1756), for whom he rented Swerford Park (Oxon), where the children were brought up.