Grignion, Charles
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- Grignion, Charles
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(1752 - 1804), painter, bro. of Thomas Grignion, watchmaker; RA schools 1769; gold medal 1776; studied under Cipriani; exh. RA 1770 - 81, 1784; d. Leghorn.
1781 - 1804 Rome (by 22 Dec. 1781 - 10 Aug. 1799) with visits to Florence (spring 1787), Palermo (Feb. 1799), Leghorn (21 Aug. 1799 - d. 4 Nov. 1804)
(His name was sometimes written Grignon but, for example, he appears as Grignion in the RA registers). Following the award of a gold medal for painting in 1776, Grignion was given a Royal Academy travelling scholarship for three years in October 1781. He reached Rome (with Robert Fagan) that December, and stayed in Italy for the rest of his life (at Easter 1782 he was living in the Via Babuino, where he stayed until 1785; in 1787 'Monsieur Grillon', painter aged 31 was staying with the sculptor Cavaceppi in the Strada Laurina).1 He failed to fulfill his early promise as a painter and was characterised by his friend and biographer George Cumberland as 'humane, studious, but slow in his studies, and rather inclined to melancholy.'2
His first undertaking was a large history picture Captain Cook attacked by the Natives which, said Cumberland, might never have been completed without the entreaties of the Abb? Grant. It was sent off to London in September 1783 for exhibition at the RA the following year, and in announcing its dispatch, Grignion alleged to Sir William Chambers that he was 'always employed'.3 Another large history piece, Prometheus chained to the Rock was undertaken for the 2nd Baron Clive, with whom Grignion was on terms of some familiarity in Rome and Florence in the spring of 1787. But the Prometheus remained unfinished, despite elaborate preparatory studies: 'all the museums were ransacked', Cumberland recalled; 'old prints studied, and, above all, the Monte-Cavallo Colossus daily perused, a number of sketches made, and each submitted in turn to Deare's [John Deare the sculptor] inspection ... it was even modelled in clay, and at last was got on to the canvas, a score of pentimenti [marking] his indecision and anxiety'; only a finished study arrived in London.2 But Grignion's portrait of Lord Clive's sister Charlotte, dated Rome 1787, remains at Powis Castle.
Charles Long told Cumberland that Grignion was 'a sensible fellow but falls a little short in the execution of his painting. I shd recommend him to turn Antiquary instead of Painter'.4 But he persisted as an artist. In 1791 John Penn commissioned him to make drawings 'of the most celebrated Greek marbles, of a Colossal size', and the following year he embarked on a third major history piece, Homer reading his Poems at the Tomb of Achilles, for the young Lord Berwick.2 Two subjects from Euripides were given him by Edward Clarke, Berwick's adviser, who noticed in Grignion's studio some illustrations to Milton 'far advanced, and very valuable'.2 These were for Sir Corbet Corbet, whose portrait Grignion had painted by December 1793, and it was on Corbet's strong recommendation that Sarah Bentham and her son were shown round Rome by Grignion.5
In 1790 Grignion was listed at Rome as a history painter living in the 'Strada Laurina the Sixth house from the Strada del Babuino on the left hand', and in 1793 at the same address as a history and portrait painter (Rome Lists); in April 1794 he signed (as Charles Grignon) the letter of thanks to Prince Augustus from English artists in Rome (Rome List 1794). Grignion appears to have been popular among British artists in Rome. He spent some time introducing Charles Long to them6 and made a series of caricatures of his fellow artists for which the Abbate Leonetti wrote satirical Italian verses. Only Jacob More took offence.7
In January 1796 Grignion described to Cumberland the insecurity felt by British artists in Rome as the French armies entered Italy.8 But he appears to have stayed on. With his friend Robert Fagan he succeeded in buying the two celebrated Claudes from the blind Prince Altieri who, like other Roman princes, was anxious to sell his pictures rather than have them forcibly requisitioned by Napoleon. Early in 1799 Fagan and Grignion had asked James Irvine, then in London, to act as their agent, but his services were to be ignored.9 The Altieri Claudes were shipped back to Falmouth in 1799 with an armed escort, thanks to Lord Nelson,10 whom Grignion had met in Palermo on 7 February 1799 according to the inscription on his pencil sketch of Nelson's head (Royal United Services Institution). It was not until 10 August 1799 that Grignion finally left Rome, leaving Lord Berwick's Homer reciting 'in his study in the Vineyards, where he occupied the house of Raphael'.2
He went to Leghorn, where he arrived on 21 August.2 Grignion appears to have settled there and to have turned to landscape painting. In his memoir Cumberland said that while Grignion's chief study had been 'the antique, and composition' it had latterly been landscape, and 'even botanical studies will be found in his portfolio'.2 Cumberland also recounted that in Leghorn Grignion had bought an altarpiece, intending to replace it with one by himself of Elijah ascending in his Chariot. But when he died of fever in Leghorn on 4 November 1804 it was not finished. Grignion was buried in Leghorn.2
1. Add.36493, f.258 (Irvine, 22 Dec. 1781). AVR sa, S.Maria del Popolo. 2. G. Cumberland, 'Biography of Charles Grignon' Monthly Mag., 1 Jan. 1809. 3. Letter sold Sotheby's, 6 Feb. 1973. 4. Add.36495, f.201 (22 Apr. 1787). 5. Bentham jnl.mss (27 Dec. 1793, 20 Jan. 1794). 6. Add.36495, f.164 (23 Dec. 1786). 7. Whitley, 2:200. 8. Add.36498, f.58 (20 Jan. 1786). 9. Add.36498, ff.267, 312 (Irvine, 4 Jan., 3 Jun. 1799). 10. See R. Trevelyan, Apollo, 96[1972]:300, 302.