Crone, Robert
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- Crone, Robert
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(c.1718 - 79), painter and collector; b. Dublin; studied under Robert West, Robert Hunter and Philip Hussey; prizewinner of Dublin Soc. Schools 1748, 1750; exh. SA 1768 (from London), RA 1770 - 8 (from London), and SA Dublin 1770.
1755 - 67 [Dublin] Rome [London]
Crone, the landscape painter, a 'little crooked Irishman',1 arrived in Rome in 1755, having been sent to Italy by Philip Hussey.2 At Easter that year he was living in the Strada della Croce with the artists Jacob Ennis and James Forrester, and later (in 1758 - 9, 1762 - 3, and 1765 - 7) he was living with Matthew Nulty in a house near S.Giuseppe.3
Soon after his arrival in Rome, Crone studied under Richard Wilson until the Welsh artist's departure in 1756 - 7. Crone also studied at the Accademia del Nudo, Rome, with John Plimmer.4 Joseph Nollekens remembered that 'little Crone, the Landscape-draughtsman' was also 'employed to collect prints in Rome for Mr Mangin, of Dublin' and that he was 'much ridiculed by the natives on account of his deformity'5 (a drawing by Mengs acquired by Crone for Mangin is now in the NGI). In March 1759 Crone was described as a promising landscapist,1 but his 'progress in art was greatly impeded by the melancholy state of his health'; he had had an epileptic fit at the age of fifteen and he experienced a recurrence while copying at the Palazzo Barberini, where he fell from a scaffold.6
On 18 June 1762 Crone exported twenty-eight paintings, twenty three by 'Autori Morti'7 In 1764 he completed two landscapes commissioned by James Grant and left unfinished by John Plimmer at his death in November 1760. These, as well as drawings by William Mosman, were mentioned by Daniel Crespin to James Grant in March 1763: 'As soon as Mr Crone shall have finished the Landscapes, all shall be forwarded together';8 they were nearing completion in September 1763 and again in February 1764; by October they had been sent off.9
By then Crone had met the traveller James Martin. On 16 June 1764 they were together at Frascati in a party which included Colin Morison and Nathaniel Dance. Later on 22 September Crone walked with Martin to the Villa Madama to admire the views of Rome and from there to Ponte Molle.(10) Martin admired his work: he thought Crone 'very clever in his Profession and must have great natural Genius ... He has chiefly studyed Claude Lorrain and I believe is reckoned to have a good Deal of his Manner. His chief Defects are, a too great Niceness in the small Parts of his Works as the Leaves etc; and somewhat a little unnatural in the Colouring; He is a most excellent Drawer of Landskip of which he has done several for the King. They have a remarkable soft mellowness in them whch is very pleasing. He is Irish and does Honour to his Country not only as a fine Painter but as a very Honest Man'.(11)
Gavin Hamilton came to share Martin's appreciation. On 10 February 1766 he wrote to Lord Palmerston saying that 'Mr Crone has finished one of his drawings which turns out extremely well and equal the great pains he has taken with it ... [he] presents his humble duty and will endeavour to get the drawing finished in about a month's time his common price is about 10 zachines a piece but he says that your Lordship was kind enough to offer him twelve in which he is extremely well contented'.(12) According to Hayward, Crone left Rome with a Mr Moon, a miniature painter, in 1767.(13)
1. Bute MSS (R. Dalton, 3 Mar. 1759). 2. Hayward List, 10. 3. AVR SA, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 4. MacDonald 1989, 80. 5. Nollekens, 1:252. 6. Edwards, 59. 7. ASR ABA 11, f.282. 8. Seafield MSS, GD 248/49/2 (11 Mar. 1763). 9. W. Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, 2:538, and Seafield MSS, GD 248/363/1/3 and /99/3 (Abb? Grant, 4 Feb., 3 Oct. 1764). 10. Martin jnl.MSS (22 Sep. 1764). 11. Ibid. (6 Jul. 1764). 12. Broadlands MSS (notes by RBF). 13. Hayward List, 13.
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