(1743 - 1803), collector; d. Palazzolo, probably Edward Poore, s. of George Webb Poore of Devizes, Wilts; Queen's Oxf. 1761; L.Inn 1772.
1789 Venice (2 Jul.), Rome [England Feb. 1790]
1791 - 3 Turin (Nov. 1791 - ), Naples (1792 - Apr. 1793), Rome
1794 Salerno (by 11 Mar.), Mantua (Jul.), Verona (18 Jul.), Trent [Munich Aug.]
Edward Poore, who appears to have been a temperamental connoisseur and collector, spent many years in Italy, but evidence of his visits is far from complete. 'Mons. Poure' arrived in Venice on 2 July 17891 and attracted the derision of the dealer G.A. Armanni who found it 'strange that someone who loves the subtlety of the Greeks should have the patience to look at the stranezze of Tiepolo, the caricatures of Celesti and the schiribizzi of so many lesser painters'.2 He had already been in Rome to judge from a letter he wrote from Salisbury on 12 February 1790 concerning English artists he knew there; Fagan was copying Domenichino and Titian for him, he was contemplating a Bacchus feeding a Tiger from the antique in marble from Deare ('I have a strong fancy for a small bit of marble from his hand'), and he advised the melancholic Hugh Robinson on the colouring of a sketch of Cupid and Psyche; Pichler was repairing for him a chalcedony Faun's head which was to be left with Thomas Jenkins.3 In the same letter he said that he hoped to be at Rome before the Carnival of 1791.
He was in Turin in November 1791, when the British envoy John Trevor described how 'mon ami M. Poore' had bought a copy of Bodoni's edition of Horace.4 He is next recorded spending the winter of 1792 - 3 in Naples.5 He dined with Robert Parker in the Hermitage (near Naples) on 11 March 1793,6 and later that month he went on an excursion to Paestum with the Palmerstons, Mary Carter and Lady Webster, who found him 'very eccentric'.7 A year later in March 1794 Thomas Brand told Lord Ailesbury that he had met his friend Mr Poore at Salerno.8 In July he was in Mantua and Verona on his way to Trent9 and in August he was in Munich on his way home.(10)
Subsequent references to Poore's difficult nature occur in artists' letters from Rome; Deare has a quarrel with 'that dirty fellow Poore',11 and the death of Robinson was credited to 'different uneasinesses the first of which was that affair with Mr Poor which prayed on his mind';12 William Theed confirmed that Poore 'does not like to part with his money though in the end pays artists very liberally - he had some squabbles with painters in Rome'.(13)
Edward Poore died in Palazzolo on 17 August 1803 and there is a monument to him in the Protestant cemetery in Rome.14
1. ASV is 766. 2. F. Haskell, Painters and Patrons, 374. 3. Add.36496, f.172. 4. Bodoni cart., cass.58 (to Bodoni, 30 Nov.[9bre]1791). 5. Forbes jnl.MSS. 6. Parker jnl.MSS. 7. Connel 1957, 281. Holland Jnl., 1:16. 8. HMC Ailesbury, 261 (11 Mar. 1794). 9. ASV is 771. 10. Broadlands MSS (Ct.Rumford, 10 Aug. 1794). 11. Add.36497, f.288 (Deare, 1 Mar. 1794). 12. Add.36498, f.136 (Fagan, 16 Oct. 1796). 13. Theed letters MSS (1 Jul. 1795). 14. A. Menitti Ippolito and P. Vian, Protestant Cemetery in Rome, [1989], 232 - 3, 303.