Russel, James
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- Russel, James
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(c.1720[?] - 63), painter and antiquary, 2nd s. of Rev. Richard Russel of Wadhurst, Sx.; d. near Radicofani.
1740 - 63 Rome (24 Jan. 1740 - d. Aug. 1763) with visits to Naples (Mar. 1741, May - Jun. 1742, May 1749), Loreto, Ancona, Bologna and Venice (May - 4 Jun. 1745) and Florence (Aug. 1745 - Oct. 1746)
James Russel came of a clever family, his father being a schoolmaster at Westminster, one of his brothers becoming a doctor and another a bookseller. Soon after leaving Westminster, Russel went to Italy to study painting but, as with other not exceptionally gifted young artists, he became instead an antiquary. The shift of interest is evident in his anonymous Letters from a Young Painter abroad to his friends in England (whose authorship was only generally recognised this century), which cover his first ten years in Rome, to 10 November 1749. The first volume was published in 1748 and revised, with a second volume, in 1750. Apart from their antiquarian content, the letters (which are addressed to members of his family) contain a wealth of information concerning Italian life and customs. They are supplemented by an extensive correspondence between Russel and his father (Add. 41169; the dates of these letters cited in brackets).
Russel sailed from Marseilles to Leghorn and arrived in Rome on 24 January 1740, taking up lodgings in the Strada Felice. Subsequently he resided in the Via Margutta between 1745 and 1751 (his age given as 32 in 1745, and 38 in 1751), in the Via Babuino 1753 - 5, and in the Strada Paolina in 1760 - 1 ('Giacomo Roselli Pittore Inglese').1 He had brought with him an introduction from Dr Mead to the painter Camillo Paderni but, 'finding him a younger man, and in a less settled condition than I imagined', Russel enrolled instead on 22 February as a pupil of Francesco Imperiali (Paderni's master, who died in November that year; it is not clear who was Russel's master thereafter). Russel's achievements as an artist were limited, but not through lack of application. In April 1742 he was 'plodding on, now and then a little brisker than ordinary, like an ass, when plentifully fed', and in October 1742 he 'owned [himself] ambitious of painting'. In the summer of 1744 he met the 'sprightly' William Drake (1723 - 96, of Shardeloes), for whom he painted a conversation-piece showing his patron with Edward Holdsworth, the Rev. Thomas Townson and probably James Dawkins, with himself in the background. It was not a total success, being described as 'a small unfinished sketch', and the head of Townson 'never was perhaps a striking likeness'.2 It remains Russel's only known oil painting, although A Group of Englishmen at Rome (YCBA) has (rather unconvincingly) been attributed to him, as also a Poussinesque landscape, signed JR 1756 (London art market 1956); three of his water-colours belonged to Iolo Williams in 1951.
In August 1745 Russel confessed that accompanying intelligent travellers was preventing him from practising his art, but allowed him 'a freer access to the finest pictures'. Drake had given him some commissions for copies which he was working on in 1748 in the Borghese Palace; in 1750 he had finished a Domenichino (13 Oct. 1750). The following year he twice described how he was generally occupied from morning till dinner-time in copying some celebrated picture and attending the Academy after dinner. In November 1749 he had described to his doctor brother 'a historico-allegorical piece' he was working on, showing 'the superiority of Pharmacy, and the despicable situation of Physic', but in the same letter he also observed that where Nature has been 'more sparing in bestowing parts and genius, it is absolutely necessary, in order to supplie that deficiency, to make use of an indefatigable industry and diligence'. Such self-awareness may have been induced by the increasing presence of British artists in Rome; there had been a dozen in 1747 (9 Dec. 1747), but by November 1749 there were sixteen, who had formed themselves into an Academy (of which Russel was a part). In December 1753 Russel began a copy of the Aldobrandini Marriage for Ralph Howard,3 but by then painting was taking second place to his antiquarian pursuits. Drawings he was making for Drake were of unpublished marbles, and those he eventually sent to Rowland Holt and Marsh in 1753 were of statues (13 Oct. 1750, 31 Jul. 1753).
Russel had first received British travellers in Rome in 1740. In September 1741 he recalled meeting several who had recently been in Rome: 'lords M[ansell] and Q[uarendon] Sir R. N[ewdigate] Mr D[ashwood]. and Mr Castleton; the last of whom generously took me with him to Naples, in company with the E. of L[incoln]'. Thereafter he was again in Naples in June 1742 with Christopher Fortescue. On 5 May 1745 he left Rome for Venice with John Bouverie, James Dawkins and Richard Phelps, travellers anxious 'to improve themselves'. Russel then appears to have spent a year in Florence, from July 1745 to October 1746. In February 1749 he wrote that 'for above two years I have been a great rambler, and have changed my quarters as often as a Tartar'; in May 1749 he was in Naples (14 Jun. 1749). Russel was soon expressing concern at how ill-informed and easily distracted British travellers were. He criticised at length Stephen Whatley's anonymous and anti-clerical Short Account of a late Journey to Tuscany [1741], and said that books on modern curiosities 'are full of mistakes'; by 1746 he intended to 'to bring within the compass of a pocket volume' a revised companion for the traveller.
Already by October 1742 his letters had revealed a serious antiquarianism, with their copies of inscriptions and liberal classical quotation. Russel was deeply interested in the excavations at Herculaneum, 'concerning which I have frequently discoursed with gentlemen', and he wrote careful descriptions of them, including a transcript of Marcello de Venuti's diary of the 1739 excavations. In the Preface to the first volume of his Letters Russel explained that his accounts of Herculaneum were 'much more extensive, particular, and exact, than any that has before appeared' and had provided the 'first occasion to the thought of making any of these Letters public'. The two volumes published in 1750 also contain letters devoted to careful descriptions of the Capitol, the Tarpeian Rock and the Obelisk found in Rome, as well as accounts of Vesuvius and the cities of Florence and Bologna. One letter reprints an account by Russel's friend Ridolfino Venuti, the Pope's antiquary, of a cameo bought by Horatio Walpole.
When Russel first came to Rome Mark Parker was the best-known antiquary for British travellers and when Parker was banished in 1749 Russel seemed set to succeed, but his Jacobite sympathies prevented a smooth succession. Russel had respectfully described the exiled Stuarts in December 1741 and had written piously and at length in May 1745 and June 1747 concerning Clementina Sobieska's funeral (which had occurred in 1735), her tomb in St Peter's and her monument in SS. Apostoli: these he illustrated in two plates (dedicated to Rowland Holt and John Monro) in the second volume of the Letters. Russel's father had asked for portraits of the Pretender and of his son Henry Benedict (14 Jun., 29 Jul. 1749), and both Russels greatly admired Edward Holdsworth (whom Russel had painted in 1744), a Non-juror identified as a dangerous Jacobite. It is not altogether surprising that Russel was already mentioning 'deceitful friends' in October 1743.
On 30 August 1750 his father wrote from London to say he had heard that his son was to succeed Mark Parker. On 14 June 1752 Russel told his father at some length of his difficulties, which all seemed to stem from John Parker and a scalding kettle. When 'a certain person' [Mark Parker] was removed 'from this place, it was suggested to me that I shou'd make a trial of a post in which it was very probable I shou'd succeed'. Russel duly guided 'amongst others the Lords Cavendish' [Frederick and George Augustus in the summer of 1750] but their tutor Robert Lowth 'unluckily let fall a boiling tea-kettle of water upon one of my legs; which accident laid me up for six weeks' while others supplanted him, 'particularly one [John Parker - as is made clear from his father's reply dated 9 July 1752], who, to maintain himself, abus'd me plentifully by representing me as a person dangerous as to my principles'. John Parker's report was soon spread in Florence and Turin 'through which places all Englishmen pass on their way to Italy'. Meanwhile Lord Pulteney and Henry Seymour had given him encouragement [probably early in 1751] and in June 1752 he was attending Lord Bruce, Sir Thomas Kennedy, Lascelles Iremonger, Benjamin Lethieullier and Thomas Scrope in the Campagna; Russel had also been asked by one of them to make a plan and drawings.
It is difficult to be certain of Russel's hardships; John Parker could clearly bring out the worst in anybody. But already by September 1749 Russel had been in business as an antiquary/dealer. He executed a commission received from John Quick in England on 30 June, sending him from Rome statues, busts, prints, maps and pastes in September.4 Between March 1752 and December 1753 (at least) he was acting as agent in Rome for Ralph Howard to whom he mentioned (25 Dec. 1753) his 'continual occupation as Antiquarian' (see Ralph Howard).
Russel's last ten years are less well documented. 'Young Russel, the painter' was acting as cicerone to a Mr Fitzhugh and William Lee early in 1753.5 He was predictably siding with Thomas Jenkins and Piranesi against Lord Charlemont in 1758 (see John Parker). In 1754 he sent pictures by Wilson and Mengs to Anthony Swymmer. On 8 June 1758 he exported twenty modern paintings including some copies, and on 10 June some marbles.6 In October 1761 he had introduced George Dance to the Duchess of Bridgewater and her husband, Sir Richard Lyttleton, and to Thomas Pitt (later Lord Camelford).7 On 25 January 1762 Russel exported from Rome some modern copper vases and a bas-relief of marble, and on 30 March 1763 four portraits by Batoni and seven landscapes by a living English artist.8 On 11 March 1763 Crespin wrote from Rome that that winter both the Abb? Venuti and Russel had been 'confined with tedious and rather painful illnesses, Russell within these few days has mended and hopes in about a week he may be able to move, at least, to some of the Palaces'.9 But Russel died in August at S. Casciano dei Bagni near Radicofani,10 Lumisden saying he had died a Catholic.(11) On 6 February 1769 four of Russel's 'really capital pictures', by Raphael, Titian, Gaspard Poussin and Guercino were being advertised for sale at Christie's.
1. AVR sa, S.Maria del Popolo, and S.Lorenzo in Lucina (1760 - 1). 2. R. Churton in Thos.Townson, Works, 1:xii. R. Edwards, Burl.Mag., 93[1951]:126 - 9. 3. Wicklow MSS (J. Russel,
25 Dec. 1753). 4. Quick MSS (J. Russel, 17 Sep. 1749). 5. Notes and Queries, 188[1945]:272. 6. ASR aba 11, f.280. Bertolotti, 2:213. 7. Dance letters MSS (7 Oct. 1761). 8. ASR aba 11, f.282. 9. Seafield MSS, GD 248/49/2. 10. Hayward List, 12, 32. GM, 33[1763]:465. 11. 27 Aug. 1763; note by B. Skinner.