NATHANIEL HONE (1718 - 1784) Portrait of a...

NATHANIEL HONE (1718 - 1784)
Portrait of a mother and child seated in an elegant draped interior
Oil on canvas, 127 x 102cm

Nathaniel Hone R.A. was born in Dublin in April 1718, the third son of Rebeckah and Nathaniel Hone, a merchant. As a young man he plied his trade as an itinerant portrait painter in England picking up commissions wherever he could. In 1742 he had the good fortune to marry Mary Earle who, Strickland tells us was a lady possessed of some property.

Hone lived for a time in London before heading to Italy for the purpose of study. He was in Rome in 1750 and in Florence in 1752 when he was made a member of the Florentine Academy. That same year he returned to England and settled in London again, quickly establishing a reputation as a portrait painter in oils but also in miniature. He was an original member of the Royal Academy which was founded in 1769 and continued to exhibit there until 1784, showing a total of sixty nine works. His jealousy of, and turbulent relationship with RA President, Sir Joshua Reynolds is well documented and indeed his truculence cast a long shadow over his remaining years. He died in London on August 14, 1784.

Hone was as adept at painting men and women as he was at the characterisation of children and it was in this idiom that he is perhaps rightly regarded as peerless. His originality is most apparent in the well-known portraits of children where they are shown in engaging poses, cuddling pets or playing musical instruments. In the present work, typical of the fashionable English portraits of the day, a small child is held by its mother and is holding a small wooden pipe. It displays immense charm and conveys a happy relationship between mother and child and in the relaxed pose little formality is conveyed. There is an element of theatricality, which Hone enjoyed, in the positioning of the sitters against a dark curtain. The view beyond to a pastoral landscape provides light and adds further charm.