Hope, Thomas
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- Hope, Thomas
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(1769 - 1831), architect and collector, of Deepdene, Surr., e. s. of John Hope, merchant banker of Amsterdam; England 1795; Dilettanti 1800; m. 1806 Louisa Beresford; FRS, FSA; author of Household Furniture [1807], On the Costume of the Ancients [1809], etc.
1791 - 3 Rome (Dec. 1791 - Jan. 1792), Naples, Sicily, Rome (Apr. 1792) [Amsterdam Mar. 1793]
1795 [London Jan. 1795] Rome (by 14 Dec. 1795 - Mar. 1796)
[1802 - 3, 1815 - 17 Naples, Rome]
Heir to the great fortune of the Amsterdam banking house, Thomas Hope travelled extensively as a young man between 1787 and 1795, developing his neo-classical taste through observation and discerning patronage. French was his first language and his English remained broken. He was at least four times in Rome between 1791 and 1795, and he was to visit Italy again in 1802 - 3 and in 1815 - 17.1
On 17 December 1791 Hope called on Flaxman in Rome to see his drawings2 and on 30 December he visited Pacetti's studio with Guy Head.3 On 28 January 1792 it was reported that 'Lord Hop', one of the richest men in England, having purchased many antiquities, had left Rome for Naples, whence he would go to Sicily.4 Hope's visit to Sicily was made with the young landscape painter G.A. Wallis,5 but the tour was apparently a short one since Mrs Flaxman listed 'Mr Hope' at a gathering of artists in Rome on 2 April 1792.2 Hope had wished to visit the Middle East, but was dissuaded by a report of plague in Egypt.6
In the course of his first visits to Rome Hope placed several remarkable commissions with Flaxman. On 13 March 1792 Flaxman told Sir William Hamilton that Hope had asked for a set of [109] drawings, one for each book of Dante, and he mentioned the Hercules and Hebe group,7 which Flaxman described to his parents as 'the noblest commission ever brought by an English artist to his own country, it is the restoration of the Torso Belvidere ... its restoration is to be the marriage of Hercules and Hebe, it is to be the size of the original ... it is ordered by Mr Thos.Hope of Amsterdam. I have bargained to make the model here and the marble in England'.8 The original concept was d'Hancarville's, and in the event only the plaster was ever made (Slade School, U. Coll., London). Flaxman was making the Dante engravings in December 1792,9 and the drawings and plates were completed by July 1793, Hope directing that the plates were for his private distribution.(10) Hope also bought Flaxman's Cephalus and Aurora and a copy of the Apollo Belvedere (besides several other pieces acquired subsequently in England). Hope's portrait (as a cricketer) was painted in Rome in 1792 by Jacques Sablet (Cricket Memorial Gall., London).
After his family had left Holland for England in the face of the French invasion, Hope was back in Rome in 1795 with his two brothers, Adrian Elias and Henry Philip. Thomas and Henry visited Pacetti's studio in Rome on 14 December 1795; li fratelli di Mr Hope [Adrian and Henry] called on 16 December, and il terzo fratello minore, Adriano called on 20 February 1796.3 In the course of their stay in Rome, all three bought fine antiquities (now dispersed).(11) Thomas bought from Thomas Jenkins a cameo of Caligula and a marble Hercules washing Diomeda's hair; from Prince D. Sigismondo Chigi a number of busts and a pair of statues of greyhounds; from Pacetti an Esculapius (from Hadrian's Villa) and an Athlete, and from Fagan's excavations at Ostia in 1797 came the magnificent so-called Greek figures of Hygeia and Athene (Los Angeles). Henry Hope bought from Pacetti a group of Bacchus and Hope (from the Villa Aldobrandini) and a Hermaphrodite. From the same source Adrian Hope bought an Apollo and an Athlete, and from Pierantoni a restored group of Antinous and Hadrian.(12) Four of these pieces were exported from Rome in March 1803.(13) Guy Head painted portraits of Thomas Hope and one of his brothers in December 1795 (untraced).14
In 1801 Thomas bought in London the surviving portion of William Hamilton's second collection of Greek vases, for 4,500 gns. He was again in Rome from January to March 1803.15
1. See D. Watkin, Thomas Hope and the Neo-Classical Idea, 5 - 7, 9, 20 - 2, 30 - 4. G.B. Waywell, Lever and Hope Sculptures, 35, 40 - 1. 2. Mrs Flaxman jnl.MSS 2. 3. Pacetti giornale. 4. Gazz.di Parma, 10 Feb. 1792 (28 Jan. 1792). 5. HMC Ailesbury, 256. 6. J. Owen, Travels into different parts of Europe, 2:299 - 300. 7. Morrison, 1:166 (no.207). 8. Add.39780, f.57 (3 Mar. 1792). 9. Add.39780, f.197 (15 Dec. 1792). 10. Watkin (at n1), 31. 11. See Waywell (at n1), 40 - 1, and cat., 66 - 112. 12. Montaiglon, 16:412 - 13. 13. Bertolotti, 4:89. 14. Montaiglon, 16:405; Watkin (at n1), 42. 15. Pacetti giornale (11 Jan., 20 Feb., 29 Mar. 1803).