Strange, Robert
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- Strange, Robert
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(1721 - 92), engraver, e. s. of David Strang of Kirkwall, Orkney; studied law, then engraving with Richard Cooper (d. 1764) in Edinburgh; fought as a Jacobite in 1745; m. 1747 Isabella Lumisden (d. 1808); studied in Rouen under Descamps, and Paris under Le Bas 1749 - 50; settled in London 1750; in Paris 1775 - 80; Kt. 1787.
1760 - 5 Florence (by 30 Oct. - 17 Nov. - 1760), Bologna, Rome (Dec. 1760 - Oct. 1761), Naples (Oct. 1761 - Aug. 1762), Rome (by 7 Aug. - Oct.), Florence (by Dec. 1762 - Mar. 1763), Bologna, Parma ( - 24 May), Bologna (25 May - 24 Aug.), Cento (Aug. - Oct.), Bologna (by 25 Oct. 1763 - Mar. 1764), Venice, Parma, Turin (by 26 Apr.) [England Jul.]
Strange was nearly forty years old when he went to Italy, a high-minded, ambitious and extremely competent engraver. Married to Isabella Lumisden, sister of the Pretender's assistant secretary in Rome, he had fought as a Jacobite in 1745 and lived in France until 1750, studying engraving in Rouen and Paris. In 1760 he left his wife and young family in London to spend four years in Italy, making drawings for subsequent engraving: 'It is only by studying and meditating upon the works of the Italian masters', he explained, 'that we can reasonably expect to form a true taste'. He was aware that his Jacobite background could work against him, and recognised that it was in his interest 'at present to behave with circumspection, by which means I shall the more readily baffle and disappoint my enemys'.1 Walpole succinctly forewarned Horace Mann in Florence of Strange's arrival: he was 'a very first-rate artist, and by far our best. Pray countenance him, though you will not approve his politics - I believe Albano is his Loretto'.2
Strange left Paris on 16 September and by 30 October he was writing from Florence. He was drawing Raphael's Madonna della sedia and already daring to anticipate 'immortale honour'; Horace Mann had 'done me great honour' and the Marquis Gerini had presented him with a volume of prints from his collection. On 17 November the drawing was still unfinished and Strange was trying, unsuccessfully, to buy some pictures for himself; perhaps, he told Lumisden, Thomas Jenkins would help him in Rome. But Strange was already involved in the celebrated case of the pictures bought by Lord Fordwich (later 3rd Earl Cowper), which was to pursue him over the next two years, his high-mindedness opposed by Jenkins's opportunism.3 'Pray what sort of a chap is this Jenkins?', he asked Lumisden; 'I find he is here the favourite of none'.
At Mann's house in Florence, with Lord Torrington and others, Strange had been shown the Fordwich Perseus and Andromeda by Guido Reni which he innocently recognised as a copy from a picture at Kensington Palace. Fordwich recalled his other three pictures from Leghorn (a Lucretia by Domenichino, a Venus by Veronese, and a St Jerome by Guido Reni) and showed them to Strange, who found them (as did Ignazio Hugford) unsatisfactory. He confided his opinions to Torrington and Mann in Florence, but later talked more freely in Naples, because of the 'concern I had at seeing such numbers of bad pictures imported into Britain'. Jenkins heard of these comments from Haughton James who had been in Naples and, through George Richardson, publicly challenged Strange. In the summer of 1762 Jenkins and Strange each signed declarations absolving themselves of any original intent to defame the other's character. Strange privately alleged that the Perseus and Andromeda had been offered to Richard Dalton for 30 crowns, that it was sold a few days later for 40 crowns to Jenkins, who sold it to Fordwich for £150; Fordwich had paid 'about £500' for his four pictures together, and regretted his purchase ever after.
Meanwhile Strange had left Florence, paid a rapid visit to Bologna to see what he would draw on a later visit (and possibly to make some purchases for Sir Lawrence Dundas), and arrived in Rome by the end of the year.4 He had promised Mann 'to behave with the utmost prudence and to make a very short stay there'.5 Cardinal Albani mentioned to Mann 'false rumours as to what had happened [to Strange] at Bologna'6 (possibly refering to Strange's purchases), but his Roman sojourn was successful. His drawing of the Madonna della sedia was greatly admired and the Pope's nephew, Prince Rezzonico, gave him an apartment in the palace and permission to erect scaffolding as he pleased for the taking of copies (which the previous Pope had banned). By June Strange had almost finished drawing Domenichino's St Cecilia in the Borghese, and was intending next to draw Guido Reni's Herodias in the Corsini [now Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica]. But in July Lumisden said that he had just finished drawing Raphael's Justice in the Vatican [Sala di Costantino] and that he was working on the companion Meekness; 'with all his application and anxiety to get home', he told Mrs Strange, 'I do not believe he can finish the drawings he proposes to do here in much less than a year', but he added 'His drawings will surprise all Britain, as they do every one here'. Strange had considered copying the Parnassus, but after the scaffolding was erected he did not go on, because he said, 'the principal figure is amongst the most indifferent, and has the least grace of any that great master ever painted'. The School of Athens was too vast an undertaking and, in any case, he said, he wanted to 'vary my subjects and authors as much as possible, and that even those be of the most agreeable kind, such as will please the public, and best suit the genius of a free people'. In September 1761 Strange was again dealing, trying to buy Guido Reni's Magdalene from the Barberini Palace [now Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica] for Horace Mann (who was acting for Lord Royston, later 2nd Earl of Hardwicke).7 By the time he left Rome Strange had also drawn Titian's Venus blinding Cupid [Palazzo Borghese], and Guercino's Death of Dido [Galleria Spada].
Early in October 1761 Strange set out for Naples where he spent the next ten months (although he had originally intended a visit of a few weeks). He drew Parmigianino's Madonna in the Monti collection, Guido Reni's Potiphar at the Baronelli palace [now Holkham], and a Rubens portrait of himself with Van Dyck. Although the British minister had failed to get him permission, he was given leave to copy in the Capo di Monte by Prince Alicandre, the King's Governor, after showing his drawings, and he was also granted an apartment in the palace. 'Mr Strange is at Naples doing wonders', the Abb? Grant reported.8 He went on to copy Titian's Danae, a Mistress and Child by Parmigianino, Schidone's Cupid and Two children singing, and a Van Dyck Sleeping Christ. Strange also bought in Naples a Holy Family by Raphael, but found nothing for Horace Mann, who had asked him to look out in Rome and Naples 'for anything capital' (apparently for the Royal collection).9
Strange was back in Rome by August 1762 and on 4 September was elected to the Accademia di S.Luca. It was probably at this time that he bought the portrait of Charles I by Van Dyck, said to have been presented by James II to Cardinal [Philip] Howard, thence to James Edgar (the Pretender's secretary), on whose death in 1762 it was bought for Strange by Andrew Lumisden. In October he left to return to Florence, where Mann described him in December with 'a numerous and well-chosen treasure of his own drawings': 'he has been very much distinguished wherever he has been, and particularly admired for a new method that he has invented of drawing in colours'.(10) Lumisden described this technique as a change from his red chalk to making miniatures 'in water-colour painting upon a prepared skin, called in Italy pelle di capone'.
Strange spent 'about four months' copying in Florence and then early in March 1763 went through Bologna to Parma, to copy the Correggio's Day [Madonna and Child with S Jerome]. He was handsomely received by M. du Tillot, presented at Court and elected Professor in the Accademia on 23 May.(11) By 13 May he had finished drawing the Correggio, and he told Morice 'I am at present in possession of about Thirty drawings, all the most agreeable subjects and from the most celebrated painters. I have no less than six from Raphael, four from Titian, four from Guerchino, besides others from Guido, Domenichino, Skedony, Parmegiano, Rubens, Vandike &c &c'. On 24 May he left for Bologna, where he encountered difficulties in obtaining access to the pictures he had chosen to copy, apparently due to Richard Dalton and Bartolozzi.
Strange had met both in Bologna as he passed through on his way from Florence to Parma, and had then told them that he was proposing to copy two Guercinos, the Circumcision (S.Gesu e Maria) and Abraham and Hagar (Sampieri coll.), and two Guidos, SS Peter and Paul (Sampieri coll.; now Brera, Milan) and Cupid (Aldovrandi Palace) when he returned to Bologna. But when he came back he found that Bartolozzi had already drawn the Circumcision and SS Peter and Paul, while Dalton was (unsuccessfully) treating for the purchase of the Cupid. Strange told Lumisden on 28 May that he was 'a good deal shagreened at Mr Dalton', and Albani told Mann in June of Strange's difficulties with the church of S.Gesu e Maria - 'vous savez ce que sont les t?tes des Femmes; mais celles voil?es sont bien plus opini?tres que les autres'.(12) Strange eventually had permission for two copies (the Circumcision and SS Peter and Paul) through help from a Hanoverian, the Duke of York, and a Stuart, Cardinal York. Samperi, however, then reneged over the SS Peter and Paul and Strange copied instead Raphael's St Cecilia. He was also elected to the Accademia at Bologna (7 June 1763),13 before leaving on 24 August for Cento to copy Guercino's Noli me tangere. He returned to Bologna in October,14 staying until March 1764. He then left Italy through Venice, Parma and Turin, where he had arrived by 26 April,15 and he was back in London in July 1764.
In 1769 Strange published his Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection ... collected and drawn during a journey of several years in Italy, and on 31 January 1771 he was elected to the Accademia del Disegno at Florence.
1. See Dennistoun, 1:282 - 301, and 2:1 - 29. 2. Wal.Corr., 21:404. 3. See Dennistoun, 1:287 - 9 and Swinburne MSS, 106:554/17 and 18 (letters from Strange to Sir Rd.Lyttelton, 7 Aug. 1762, and H. Morice, n.d. c.Mar. 1763). 4. Hayward List, 12, 33. 5. Wal.Corr., 21:470 (10 Jan. 1761). 6. SP 105/313, f.389 (10 Jan. 1761). 7. Wal.Corr., 21:532 - 3. 8. Seafield
MSS, gd 248/99/3 (20 Jan. 1762). 9. Wal.Corr., 22:115 (22 Jan. 1763). 10. Ibid., 108 (4 Dec. 1762). 11. Accademia Parmense di Belle Arti, Atti, 10, f.38. 12. SP 105/315, ff.137, 139 (11/18 Jun. 1763). See Lewis 1961, 187 - 8. 13. Note by S. Zamboni. 14. Kaye letters MSS (25 Oct. 1763). 15. SP 105/315, f.553 (G. Pitt, 26 Apr. 1764).