(1710 - 88), painter and draughtsman, 6th s. of John Hussey of Marnhill, Dorset; educ. Douai and St Omer c.1717 - 22; studied in London with Jonathan Richardson, Francesco Riari and Vincenzo Damini; in London 1742; retired to Dorset 1768.
1730 - 7 Bologna (1730 - 2 - ), Rome (1732 - 7) with visit to Bologna in May 1734
Hussey came of a Catholic family and for five years had been educated in France.1 He went to Italy in the winter of 1729 - 30 with Vincenzo Damini, under whom he had studied painting in England for some four years. On their arrival in Bologna it was alleged that Damini 'tricked the young artist out of his money, and most of his clothes, and left him in a very deplorable condition'; for three months he endured 'with a poor kind widow' and was then helped by a Venetian 'ambassador' who had witnessed the original agreement between Damini and Hussey. In 1731 and 1732 he gained drawing prizes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna (Apollo guarding the flocks of Admetus is preserved at the Academy). An album of 24 studies from paintings by Lodovico Carracci and Guido Reni in the church of S.Michele in Bosco, near Bologna, is in the BMPL. Towards the end of 1732 he moved to Rome, by then the pupil of Ercole Lelli, painter, sculptor and engraver, who had accepted Hussey as a friend, rather than a pupil. They were to return to Bologna in May 1734 when Walter Bowman met them, and asserted that Hussey 'since Raphael is allowed the greatest master of drawing'.2
In Rome Hussey spent most of his time drawing and he acquired a considerable reputation; in 1734 Sir John Evelyn read a letter to the Society of Antiquaries in London saying that 'one Hussey, a Dorsetshire Gentleman was the Most Celebrated Master in Drawing' in Rome,3 and in 1735 his father wrote that Giles 'is in very good reputation at Rome & is expected to prove ye greatest painter of ye age he is allowd alredy to be the best drawer'. Hussey met Button (a pupil of Sebastiano Conca), with whom he studied anatomy, ancient statues and bas-reliefs. He drew the Pretender and his son Charles Edward,4 and evidently mixed in Jacobite circles (in 1792 John Udny gave Sir William Forbes three drawings by him of the Pretender 'done at different periods of life').5 Vertue suggested he also visited Naples and Venice. According to Walpole, Hussey was just beginning to colour (i.e. paint) when his father died (4 June 1736), leaving nothing to his son. Money for Hussey's journey home was then raised by Hugh Smithson (later Duke of Northumberland) and other Englishmen at Rome.6 Hussey subsequently executed a number of commissions for Northumberland which remain at Syon House, but he was never very productive. He grew obsessed with theories of beauty and became a recluse. 'Seventy-two elegant high-finished Drawings by that much esteemed Artist Mr Hussey' were sold in 1787 (Christie's, 1 May); see Michael Bray.
1. See Edwards, 150 - 7; J. Hutchins, History of Dorset, 4[1792]:154 - 9, 424, and Vertue, 3:41, 64, 80. Notes by S. O'Connell. 2. 11 Jun. 1734; Balfour of Fernie MSS. 3. Soc. of Antiquaries lib., minutes 1732 - 7, 15 Jun. 1734, 2:42. 4. See Kerslake 1977, 42, and Edwards, 154. 5. Forbes jnl.MSS (2 Dec. 1792). 6. Whitley, 1:126.