(1718/19 - 93), 2nd s. of Joseph Iremonger; preb. of Wherwell and vic. of Goodworth, Hants; unm.
1750 - 2 Rome (1750; by 12 Apr. 1751), Venice (2 Jul. - 4 Sep. 1751), Rome (by 18 Mar. - May 1752), Capua (23 May), Naples (May - Jul.) with visit to Paestum, Rome (Aug.? 1752), Perugia, Siena, Genoa (Jan. 1753) [Vienna Aug., Dresden Sep.]
Iremonger travelled with his half-brother Benjamin Lethieullier, and their paths sometimes crossed those of Sir Matthew and Lady Fetherstonhaugh, his half-sister and brother-in-law. They spent over two years in Italy where they commissioned pictures from Batoni and Joseph Vernet, and became part of Lord Charlemont's lively set at Rome. It was, presumably, an indication of familiarity when Charlemont made a (characteristic) wager at Lucca on 26 September 1751 that Iremonger would live longer than General d'Olloune, the Polish amabassador at Turin.1
Both were in Rome in 1750, when Lethieullier commissioned a set of four Times of Day and two river landscapes from Vernet for completion in April 1751 (all at Uppark) and Iremonger bought 'un petit tableau' from Vernet in 1751.2 Both Iremonger and Lethieullier appear in Reynolds's Parody of the School of Athens (NGI) painted at Rome in 1751, and Iremonger sat to Batoni for the first of his two portraits, dated 1751 (Uppark; Clark/Bowron 160). Lethieullier was writing to Lord Charlemont from Rome on 12 April 1751.3
Lethieullier and Iremonger were listed in Venice from 2 July to 4 September 1751,4 and they are next recorded arriving back in Rome on 18 March 1752.5 Lethieullier commissioned two more pictures from Vernet in 1752 for Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh,6 and both were listed among the sponsors of Charlemont's Roman academy for British artists7 (see Charlemont). Batoni painted a second, similar, portrait of Iremonger in 1752 (destroyed 1989; Clark/Bowron 163) and Lethieullier also sat to Batoni, both on his own (Uppark) and with his sister (priv. coll.) [Clark/Bowron 161 - 2]. In June 1752 James Russel described having lately attended a party from Rome which included Lethieullier and Iremonger 'to Tivoli, Palestrina, Antium etc.', adding that the group were 'at present in Naples'.8
Lethieullier and Iremonger had passed through Capua on 23 May 17529 on their way to Naples. On 22 July Iremonger wrote to Sir Roger Newdigate from Naples, sending his brother's compliments and describing a visit to Paestum (which he calls Pista); he intended, he wrote, to return to Rome the following week and to proceed to Siena via Perugia. The letter also shows Iremonger to have been something of a classicist (he transcribes a Latin inscription and talks of his growing collection of medals).(10) By January 1753 Lethieullier was in Genoa,11 and in August Letheuillier and Iremonger were reported to be in Vienna, intending to be home by the winter.(12)
1. HMC Charlemont, 1:184. 2. Lagrange, 333 - 4, 361. 3. See HMC Charlemont, 1:168. 4. ASV is 758. 5. Wicklow MSS (J. Russel, 18 Mar. 1752). 6. Lagrange, 336. 7. GM, 22[1752]:
288. 8. Wicklow MSS (J. Russel, 6 Jun. 1752). 9. ASN cra 1257. 10. Newdigate MSS, B 1778. 11. Adml.Ld. Gambier, Memorials, [1861], 2:64. 12. HMC Charlemont, 1:186.