Peters, Matthew William
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- Peters, Matthew William
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(1741 - 1814), painter, s. of Matthew Peters, seedsman of Freshwater, Isle of Wight; taken to Dublin as a child; studied under Robert West in Dublin and Hudson in London; exh. SA 1766 - 9: RA 1769 - 71, 1773 - 4, 1776 - 8, 1780, 1782, 1785: SA Dublin 1777; ARA 1771; RA 1777; Exeter Oxf. 1779; ord. 1781; chapl. to RA 1784 - 8; rect. Wolsthorpe 1788, prebend. Lincoln 1795, and chapl. to P. Regent; exh. BI 1807.
1762 - 4 [dep. Dublin Aug. 1761] Leghorn, Rome (by 1 May 1762), Florence (Apr. 1763 - Nov. 1764)
1771 - 5 [London] Florence (by 5 Nov. 1771), Venice (by 1 Mar. 1772 - 6 Mar. 1773) with visit to Parma; Florence (Aug. - Sep. 1774), Perugia (by 21 Dec. 1774), Rome (by Jan. 1775), Parma (Apr.), Venice [London 1776]
Peters was sent to Italy by the Dublin Society on an allowance of thirty pounds a year, paid to him twice yearly by Lord Newtown-Butler. On his arrival in Rome, Peters wrote on 6 May 1762, 'I am but a week in Rome though I left Dublin last August, having been two months a sea between that place and Cadiz beating about in the midst of the equinoctial storms on board a little one-masted Dutch dogger; and was afterwards obliged to remain three months at Gibraltar before I had the opportunity of a man-of-war for Leghorn, but I hope now for some improving studies in this much-talked-of City of Rome'.1
In Rome he studied at the Accademia del Nudo and at Batoni's private academy. Of the first he wrote: 'At the Pope's Academy, where I attend, the human figure is every day in the week, holidays excepted, free for any person to draw after without any expense - in the summer at half an hour after five in the morning and in winter after nightfall - two hours each time; near which are many large galleries erected for pictures and statues, where people may at any time study, but it has this disadvantage, that the pictures are not allowed to be taken down nor scaffolds to be made; the light, however is very good and as well contrived as possible for the benefit of study...'.2 In another letter he mentioned Batoni's academy: 'I am under the direction of Pompeo Battoni, from whom I shall hope to get some furtherance in drawing; but I shall look after the Old Masters for those things that require most study'.2
Peters left Rome in about April 1763 for Florence, having been recommended to study in Tuscany and Lombardy. He was pleased to get away from 'those dissensions which, I am sorry to observe, seem more universally to prevail among the artists of our country than with those of any others. Our students in Rome are initiated into that manner of life which they afterwards lead in London, the ill effects of which we have often lamented together'.2 In Florence he stayed at the Hotel Carraio, known as Vannini's English house on the Piazza Soderini.3 On 25 September 1763 he was elected to the Accademia del Disegno.4 James Martin recorded on 22 November 1764 going with Peters to the church of S.Maria del Carmine, to look at Masaccio's frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel. Martin also noted seeing a portrait by Peters of a Mr Mitchell 'in Vandyke dress' as well as a copy of Titian's Venus.5 It is said that Peters was referred to as the 'English Titian' because of his series of portraits of reclining ladies, inspired by the Venus d'Urbino.6
On his second visit to Italy Peters was in Florence on 5 November 1771, when he gave the Duke of Gloucester a tour of the Pitti Palace. The next day they visited the Uffizi and the pietre dure workshop of Cosimo Series. The following day Peters accompanied the Duke to the Baptistery, the Duomo, the studio of Francis Harwood and later to visit Lord Cowper.7 By 1 March 1772 Peters was in Venice.8 John Skippe's notebook on painting techniques, dated Venice, 30 June 1772, mentions a portrait by Peters of the British resident, Sir James Wright with his family (untraced), which Peters considered the best picture he had painted at that time. The notebook also includes a description of the way Peters set out his palette and remarks on the pictures he copied (which included a Venus by Titian belonging to Wright).9 On 8 January 1773, still in Venice, Peters was staying at the Casa di Maria Udligher, S.Maria Nova, and his date of departure was given as 6 March 1773.(10)
By this time he appears to have been to Parma; Christie's sold in London (5 Feb. 1773) the collection of a Nobleman from the Court of Parma, consigned under the direction of Mr Peters. It may have been during this period in Parma that Peters made the copy of Correggio's Madonna of St Jerome (Parish Church of Saffron Walden, Essex). He was back in Florence in August and September 1774, copying at the Uffizi.(11) By 21 December he had visited Perugia, where he carried out the commission for the 1st Baron Clive to copy Barocci's Madonna della Scudella, for which he was paid 100 guineas.(12) By January 1775 he was again in Rome, where he wrote to George Romney recommending accommodation in Bologna, Venice (Mr Edward's), and Parma (the Gambara or Pavone inns); he himself intended to stay in Parma that April.(13) His portrait of Edward Wortley Montagu in oriental dress (exh. RA 1776; priv. coll.) suggests he was in Venice later in 1775.
1. Whitley, 1:305. 2. Ibid., 306 (n.d.). 3. C.L. Dentler, Famous Foreigners in Florence, [Florence 1964], 198 - 9. 4. Wynne 1990, 538. 5. Martin jnl.MSS (22 Nov. 1764). 6. Ldy. Victoria Manners, Matthew William Peters, 6. 7. Gazz.Tosc. Borroni 1985, 41. 8. ASV IS 759. 9. Skippe MSS. 10. ASV IS 759, 760. 11. Borroni 1991, 264. 12. Thorpe letters MSS (21 Dec. 1774*). 13. Romney 1830, 111 - 12 (13 Jan. 1775).
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