(1740 - 66), e. s. of 2nd E. of Hopetoun [S]; sty. Ld. Hope; to America and W. Indies c.1765 - 6; unm.
1762 - 3 Florence (Nov. 1762), Rome (Dec.), Naples (Dec. 1762 - Jan. 1763), Rome (by 15 Jan. - May), Venice (May) [Vienna, Aug. 1763 - Feb. 1764]
Charles, Lord Hope, suffered from perpetual ill-health and did not live to succeed to the title, which passed to his younger brother James. It appears that James left the army especially to join his brother in Rome in March 1763.1
Lord Hope meanwhile was in Florence in November 1762 and was expected in Rome in December.2 He passed quickly through, and went on to Naples. James Adam recorded seeing much of him with his tutor William Rouet in Rome after their return from Naples in January 17633 and it was undoubtedly through Adam that Lord Hope commissioned a group of 21 Roman views from Cl?risseau (priv. colls.). On 5 March 1763 Winckelmann was about to show Lord Hope round Rome with the 4th Duke of Gordon and a Mr Stephenson.4 Lord Hope was then impatiently awaiting the arrival of his brother, who had written from Villafranca.5 After James had arrived, the Abb? Grant ingratiated himself with 'my Lord Hope and his brother, the Captain', and writing in September 1763 he remembered that 'this last winter and spring ... I passed two months with them in the country at Tivoli where we were most happy'.6
In Rome the brothers sat to Nathaniel Dance for whole-length portraits (both at Hopetoun), of which Lord Hope's was begun on 6 February 1763.7 The contrast between them is marked, the wan Lord Hope leaning against a tree, and James standing robust in his regimentals. The brothers also sat to Dance with their tutor William Rouet (Hopetoun), a picture which James Martin saw in Dance's studio in Rome on 7 May 1764.8 Lord Hope commissioned Gavin Hamilton in 1763 to paint a Brutus promising to avenge Lucretia's death, with five figures, for £;250;6 this was a bold commission, and when the picture was finally completed in August 1767 Lumisden pronounced it 'the best picture [Hamilton] has painted'.9 A version of the composition is in the Theatre Royal, London. Lord Hope also bought four landscapes from Solomon Delane in 1763, and Crespin remarked that he 'seems to like Marbles, has made a few Purchases'.5 On 26 March 1763 Winckelmann recorded Lord Hope buying a marble of two putti.(10) By August 1763 the brothers were in Vienna, where Lord Hope, at least, remained until February 1764.(11)
1. See B. Skinner, CL, 4 Apr. 1963, 706 - 7. Notes by B. Skinner. 2. Seafield MSS, GD 248/99/3 (Abb? Grant, 27 Nov., 8 Dec. 1762). 3. Fleming, Adam, 301 - 2. 4. Winckelmann
Briefe, 2:295, 302. 5. Seafield MSS, gd 248/49/2 (D. Crespin, 11 Mar. 1763). 6. Ibid., gd 248/3/609 (12 Sep. 1763). 7. Dance letters MSS (6 Feb. 1763). 8. Martin jnl.MSS. 9. B.
Skinner, CL, 4 Apr. 1963, 707. 10. Briefe, 2:301. 11. Seafield MSS, gd 248/363/1/3 (Abb? Grant, 4 Feb. 1764).