(1731 - 83), oriental merchant, of the Hope family of Amsterdam, cos. of John Hope.
1760 - 2 Rome (1760 - Apr. 1761?), Naples, Florence (Oct. 1761), Venice (by Jan. 1762), Turin (May)
1764 Venice (27 Jul. - 11 Aug.)
It seems impossible to distinguish between the cousins Olivier and John Hope, both of whom visited Italy in the early 1760s. In October 1760 Voltaire wrote of 'un cavaliere chiamato M.Hope, mezzo Inglese, mezzo Ollandese, e richissino ... Egli va a videre tutta l'Italia et la Grecia ancora'.1 Hope visited Cardinal Albani in Rome in 1760, when he made a bad bargain with d'Hancarville over some antique busts,2 and a Hope who, according to Winckelmann, was as disappointing as his father, had been eight days in Rome on 10 April 1761.3 'Mr Hope' was apparently in Naples and Florence in October 1761.4 John Hope ('Gio. Hope') applied to export two granite columns from Rome on 29 June 1761.5 Olivier Hope was evidently in Venice in January 1762,6 and a Hope was in Turin in May.7 Colin Morison was engaged by a Mr Hope for a year in Rome in January 1762 and the same Hope discussed the possibility of an Eastern tour with Winckelmann between April and August 1764.8 A Hope was in Venice in 1764, arriving from Aix-la-Chapelle with Mr Pigot [Robert Pigott] on 27 July, en route for Constantinople; John Morgan remarked that Hope spoke 'english like a native of England'.9
Olivier and John Hope had presented their portraits to Sir John Dick as a mark of gratitude for the attention they had received from him in Italy.(10)
1. See D. Watkin, Thomas Hope and the Neo-Classical Ideal, 265n12. 2. Lewis l961, 199. 3. Winckelmann Briefe, 2:134. 4. SP 105/313, f.650 (Gray, 27 Oct. 1761). 5. ASR ABA 11, f.281. 6. SP 105/314, f.50 (Murray, 30 Jan. 1762). 7. SP 105/314, f.162 (Phelps, 12 May 1762). 8. Winckelmann Briefe, 3:34,48, 52, 63 - 4. 9. Morgan Jnl. (27 Jul. 1764). 10. Dick corr.MSS (Mr [Thos.?] Hope, 27 Feb. 1805).