(1742 - 1812), engraver and collector, of Ledbury. Herts; Merton Oxf. 1760; unm.
1766 - 7 Rome (by 7 Nov. 1766 - 6 Jun. 1767), Venice (by 18 Aug. - Sep.)
1772 - 5 Venice (by 30 Jun. 1772), Padua (1773); Leghorn (2 May 1775), Florence (10 - 14 May), Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Venice (by 3 Aug. - 9 Oct. 1775) [Egypt Dec. 1775; England by 1778]
An amateur artist, John Skippe travelled for some years in Italy and Egypt.1 In Italy he acquired some paintings and made a considerable collection of old master drawings, many of which were said to have come from a monastery in Venice. Skippe was not infallible as a collector, but he acquired some important pieces (by Giovanni Bellini and Lorenzo Lotto, for example). His own drawings included some landscapes, but were essentially copies from old masters. He was in Rome from early November 1766 to June 1767,2 and was presumably the 'Tomaso Schiipp gentiluomo Inglese' in Venice on 18 August 1767;3 he was certainly in Venice in September.2 From London on 1 April 1769 'Skippe Gugliemo' accepted honorary membership of the Accademia di S.Luca in Rome.4
Skippe was again in Venice on 30 June 1772, when he inscribed the fly-leaf of one of his notebooks.5 He was then much with Matthew William Peters whose painting technique he admiringly described. Skippe was in Padua sometime in 1773, when he dated the album containing his drawings of the Eremitani frescoes (BMPL). He was sending pictures from Venice to Rome on 3 August and 13 October 1775, some apparently for Thomas Jenkins.5 By December 1775 he was in Alexandria6 and a group of undated drawings confirm his travels in Egypt.5
In April 1778 Anne Pitt was wondering whether Skippe was still in Venice,7 but he was probably back in England by then, 1778 being the earliest date in his list of Pictures painted at Ledbury & elsewhere.5 In 1779 he sold, without much success, a number of old master paintings at Christie's. Skippe made forty chiaroscuro woodcuts from drawings in his collection, which was finally dispersed in 1958 (Christie's 20/1 Nov.). In 1783 he wrote from Overbury to the British resident at Venice, John Strange, saying how he wanted to return 'to a country which of all others I prefer, from one which of all others I most dislike'.8
1. See A.E. Popham, Christie's sale cat., 20/1 Oct. 1958. Notes from the Skippe MSS. 2. Skippe acct.bk.MSS (accts. of Skippe in Italy 1766 - 9); Herts RO (notes by I. Fleming-Williams). 3. ASV is 759. 4. L. Pirotta, L'Urbe, 5[1960]:12. 5. Priv. coll. (seen by RBF in 1961). 6. Times, 14 Nov. 1958. 7. Eg.1970, f.8 (24 Apr. 1778). 8. Eg.1970, f.143 (30 Jun. 1783).