Day, Alexander
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
- Title
- Day, Alexander
- Full Text of Entry
-
(c.1751 - 1841), miniaturist and dealer; b. Somerset; pupil of Humphry; exh. SA 1768, 1773; m. 1792 in Rome Anna Mattei (b. c.1769).
1774 - 1815 Rome [England 1801, 1804]
Alexander Day came to Italy in January 1774. On 23 December 1773 he wrote to Humphry (in Rome) saying he was at Lyons with Mr and Mrs [James] Paine, and on 7 January he wrote from Turin accepting Humphry's offer of a room in Rome.1 When Hayward recorded Day's arrival in Rome in 1774 he described him as 'scolar to Humphrys'.2 Day was to spend most of the next forty years in Rome, practising as a miniaturist, copyist and dealer. On the occasion of his marriage in Rome in 1792 Day was described as 'della citta di Sommerset in Ighilterra, venne a Roma d'aprile 1774 da dove poi fino al presente mai e partito, abbita sotto la cura di S.Andrea delle Fratte e fa il miniatore'.3 Day shared an apartment in Rome with Nevay from 1774 to 1811, first in the Strada Gregoriana (1774) and then the Strada Felice (his age given as 30 in 1783); in 1793 Anna Maria Mattei, his wife, was said to be 24 years old and Day 42.4 Farington recounted that Ecclesiastical authority had compelled Day to marry the lady he had secreted in his apartment and by whom he had had children.5
In 1779 Northcote described him as a miniature painter and dealer in paintings; in April that year Northcote (who was sharing rooms with him in Rome in 1779) went to Naples with Day, Tresham, Maria Hadfield, Prince Hoare and Thomas and Mrs Banks.6 Day frequently encountered Thomas Jones between 1776 and 1780.7 He appeared as a miniaturist on the lists of British artists at Rome in 1790 and 1793 (at the Arco della Regina, the same address as Nevay) and he signed the letter of thanks to Prince Augustus in April 1794;8 Artaud recorded that Day had soldiers quartered on him in Rome in February 1798.9
Little is known of his practice as an artist. By 1786 Day appears to have been employed as a copyist by the 4th Earl of Bristol, in which role he quarrelled openly with Jacob More, Bristol's agent.(10) In February 1785 Richard Worsley visited 'Carlo Bruzis [Labruzzi], Mr Mores [Jacob More] & Mr Days paintings' in Rome;11 in 1792 Philip Yorke (3rd Earl of Hardwicke) commissioned Day to make drawings from the antique,12 and Robert Parker, in 1792 - 3, wrote that Day was 'very good' and was 'to exec[ute] H[ea]ds. of Emp[ero]rs for Wood[?]' (Rome list 1790). In 1793 Sir William Forbes commented that Day's miniatures were 'much inferior in merit to several in London', but he noticed that Day had a copy of Titian's Danae in his collection for sale at 100 gns.(13) There is a large miniature by Day of John, Lord Hervey, dated 1795 at Ickworth, and he had some success with a portrait of William Lambton in 1797.14
Dealing occupied him increasingly. In August 1787 he was trying to persuade Pacetti to sell a marble Faun to Sir Richard Worsley; by 1800 he was negotiating for Lord Bristol.15 In 1792 he wrote to William Hamilton describing the copies he had made in oil and in miniature from a portrait of Lady Hamilton, but labouring more the regrettable delay in sending 'the Colossal Head & Leg' from Monte Cavallo.16 Day was to exhibit his casts from Monte Cavallo in London in 1816. With the French invasion of Rome in 1798, spectacular opportunities arose for dealers, of whom Day was at first prominent. He bought a great part of the Aldobrandini collection that year17 and came to London in 1801 with 'one of the most important collections which was introduced into this country so recently after the French invasion of Italy had thrown open the doors of the palaces to the acquisition of those high works of art, which were previous to that time absolutely unattainable'.18 Day's pictures were exhibited in Lower Brook Street and Farington saw him in London in March and July that year.19 Day soon returned to Rome, sending pictures back to London in 1802 and 1806.20 For some time he was working with the Italian dealer and painter Vincenzo Camuccini, with whom he briefly visited England again in 1804. He finally returned to London late in 1815.21 He had sometimes been confused with Albert Dies, a German engraver in Rome at the same time, see Appendix 4.
1. Humphry corr.MSS, hu/1/146 and 2/1. 2. Hayward List, 15, 21. 3. O. Michel, M?langes de l'?cole fran?aise de Rome, 84[1972], 2:500n3. 4. AVR SA, S.Andrea delle Fratte. 5. Farington Diary (16 Feb. 1800). 6. Northcote Memorials, 164. 7. Jones Memoirs, 53, 90, 92, 93. 8. Rome Lists 1790, 1793, 1794. 9. Artaud letter bk.MSS (23 Feb. 1798). 10. P. Andrew, Apollo, 124[1986]:92. 11. Worsley MSS 23 (2 Feb. 1785). 12. Whitley MSS (Day, 5 May 1792). 13. Forbes jnl.MSS (Apr. 1793). 14. Artaud letter bk.MSS (27 Aug. 1797). 15. Pacetti giornale (1 Aug. 1787; 6 Feb. 1800). 16. Add. 41199, f.87 (31 Jan. 1792). 17. Farington Diary (9 Oct. 1798). 18. Buchanan, 2:8. See also Gordon, Personal Memoirs, 2:12 - 14. 19. Farington Diary (4, 19 Mar., 1 Jul. 1801). Buchanan, 2:4 - 8. 20. ASR ABA 14, ff.299, 300; 15, f.304 (export licences for 28 Apr., 25 Oct. 1797; 21 Jun., 21 Sep. 1802; 7 Dec. 1806). 21. Farington Diary (30 Mar. 1816).