Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue: Watts
Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Hymn-writer; son of a nonconformist schoolmaster; educated at Stoke Newington nonconformist academy, 1690-94; nonconformist minister in London, 1702-48; composed six hundred hymns including Jesus shall reign where'er the sun and Our God, our help in ages past; published Horae Lyricae, religious poems, 1706; Hymns, 1707; Divine Songs, hymns for children, 1715, and a selection of metrical Psalms of David, 1719; published doctrinal treatises, of Arian tendency, 1722-46, broaching a theory held also by Henry More; hon. DD Edinburgh, 1728; compiled educational manuals, including Logic, 1725, and Scripture History, 1732; his Collected Works, published, 1810.
264 By an unknown artist
Oil on canvas, 29 ¼ x 25 ¼ in. (740 x 640 mm); grey eyebrows, dark grey eyes, grey wig parted in the centre; white bands and a green silk (?) gown with russet lining, or just possibly hood band; plain brown background; dark brown painted oval, strongly lit from the left.
One of three known examples, NPG 264 seems likely to be, on grounds of quality, a repetition or early copy of a type of which the original is likely to be either that in Dr Williams's Library, Gordon Square, to whom it was given by the executors of Mrs Abney's will, or that at New College, London, [1] of which Watts was one of the original Trustees, 1738-48. Though the type is not known to have been .engraved before 1780 the identity seems virtually certain, in view of the provenance. However, the attribution to Kneller given by Scharf [2] is less demonstrable; though influenced by him, on grounds of costume the picture seems rather late to have been painted in his lifetime.
Condition:rubbed; very thin in the wig, numerous retouchings in the face are now discoloured; pin-holes at corners; sides trimmed (?) in old relining.
Collections:bought 1868 from J.R. Smith, together with NPG 265, a portrait after Kneller of John Howe, Cromwell's domestic chaplain. [3] Said to have been painted for Sir Thomas Abney (1640-1722), Lord Mayor of London, and an enthusiastic nonconformist, in whose house at Theobalds Watts spent the last thirty years of his life. Both portraits are stated to have descended from Abney to the vendor's father, Edward Smith, through three legatees. The first certain knowledge of NPG 264 is an engraving of 1834 by Robert Sears: From an Original Painting in the possession of Mr. Edward Smith, Finsbury Square.
Engraved:according to Bromley, [4] the type was engraved by Caroline Watson for Watts' Life,1780; an engraving in reverse by Trotter from an original picture in the possession of Mrs. Abney,published in 1783, is likely to be from the portrait presented to Dr Williams' Library on 4 July 1783 by Thomas Streatfield and John Harrison, executors of Mrs Abney's will. [5] Engraved by Robert Sears, 1834 (seeCollections).
Literature:G. Vertue, Manuscript list of his engravings, in the collection of W.S. Lewis, Farmington, Connecticut; H. Bromley, A Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits from Egbert the Great to the Present Time,1793; Kenneth Clark (Baron Clark), ‘Baroque and the National Shrine', Architectural Review, XCIV,1943.
Iconography
Engravings made in the sitter's lifetime suggest four portrait types. Three of these are by Vertue: the first, after an otherwise unknown painting by Isaac Whood, was engraved in 1710 (O'D 9); [6] the the second, dated 1722, was described by Vertue as 'Drawn from ye life' (O'D 10), [7] and the last, a half length depiction of Watts holding a book, was engraved in 1742 for the Horae Lyricae (O'D 11). In addition there is a mezzotint of almost poster-like quality by G. White, engraved ad vivum 1727 (O'D 4). In all of these the sitter is shown three-quarter face in wig, bands, and gown, and there is sufficient resemblance in the face-mask not to exclude interdependence. These types were re-engraved on a number of occasions. Vertue also lists another engraving of 1729, but an impression is not now known. [8]
This ends the dated types. NPG 264, which is chronologically perhaps nearer the end than the beginning of this sequence, represents the only virtually certain surviving painted type, though three others might prove authentic if further evidence were discovered. The first is a portrait now in Stoke Newington Library. The features resemble those in an engraving in the NPG archives of the head by Ravenet, but the sitter is shown with a cleft chin, and the history of the picture is not known before it was in the hands of a Newcastle firm in 1910. A three-quarter length, 50 x 40 in., in the London art trade in 1958, somewhat reminiscent of Jervas in handling, was from the collection of the late James Watts of Abney House, but nothing further is known of the reason for its identification. It was sketched by Scharf 'at Mr. Stevens', Camberwell' on 30 January 1861. [9] Finally, in Abney Congregational Church there is a rather youthful portrait the provenance of which is unknown.
There is no ad vivum sculpture; a monument was erected in Westminster Abbey, c.1779. [10] A statue in Abney Park Cemetery is by E.H. Baily, 1845, and one of 1858 by R.C. Lucas is at Southampton.
Notes
1. Not now very easy to assess, it was described by Scharf as 'mellow and well painted' on 24 January 1861, TSB, V, p.17.
2. Scharf, p.461.
3. SeePiper, pp.172-73.
4. A Catalogue . . .,p.282.
5. Sir Thomas Abney died at Theobalds, 6 February 1722; his widow survived until 1750 and his direct line became extinct with the death in August 1782 of his heiress and last surviving child Elizabeth, then aged 78, who was styled Mrs Abney, according to the DNB, I, p.55, and information from Mr Creasey, Deputy Librarian of Dr Williams' library.
6. The date given on p.2 of Vertue's manuscript list of engravings; a squared drawing was in the Knowsley Library sale, Christie's, 20 October 1953, lot 307.
7. Vertue's manuscript list, p.9.
8. Vertue's manuscript list, p.15.
9. TSB, V, p.28.
10. Reproduced, Clark, p.12.