Tavistock, Francis Russell, Marquess of
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- Tavistock, Francis Russell, Marquess of
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(1739 - 67), o. surv. s. of 4th D. of Bedford; educ. Westminster and Trin. Camb. 1757; MP 1759 - 60 [I], 1761 - 7; Dilettanti 1763; m. 1764 Ldy. Elizabeth Keppel, dau. of 2nd E. of Albemarle.
1761 - 2 [dep. England Oct. 1761] Genoa (by 22 Dec. 1761), Florence (Jan. 1762), Rome (two days, Jan.), Naples, Rome (by mid Feb. - end Mar.), Bologna (Apr.), Venice (13 - before 29 Apr.), Turin ( - 12 May) [England end May]
Tavistock's letters to his cousin (the 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory) provide a full acount of his six-month visit to Italy in 1761 - 2.1 Well-disposed from the outset, he wrote from Genoa 'I have already received infinite entertainment from Italy and hope to receive a great, great deal more' (22 Dec. 1761).2 He travelled rapidly down to Naples, passing through Florence, where he was noticed by Horace Mann in January,3 and where he may well have commissioned the two scagliola tabletops by Lamberto Gori at Woburn which are dated 1763. He spent just two days in Rome, where Lord Strathmore had given him an introduction to the Abb? Grant,4 before going on to Naples. In mid-February 1762 Tavistock returned to Rome, this time spending nearly two months there.5 'I have only bought some prints and a little Basso releivo' he wrote, 'but at present I am engaged in a pretty deep affair - the buying some of the best things in the Barberini Palace'; Gavin Hamilton was his 'operator' and they had 'together pitched upon some things' - one being 'the famous death of Germanicus by Poussin' (6 Mar. 1762) - which, of course, they failed to get. But Tavistock did acquire, in 1764 after his return to England, the Barberini Guercino, Samson taking the Honey to his Father (1764; now Chrysler Mus., Norfolk, Virginia).
His relationship with Hamilton was apparently close: Tavistock commissioned from him Achilles dragging the Body of Hector which was painted 1762 - 56 (it was sold by the family in 1767 since the subject so nearly described the manner of Tavistock's tragic early death through a riding accident; it is now untraced), and Hamilton helped him acquire a Carracci Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.7 But their association found fullest expression in the acquisition of ancient marbles, although only two, the much restored Athene and Ceres can be traced back to 1762 (they were displayed at Bedford House and are now at Woburn Abbey). Thomas Jenkins had warned Hamilton that 'Lord Tavistock would not give him a guinea for the finest [headless] torso ever discovered'.8 Tavistock also admired the Apollo Belvedere ('to have seen it, and not turn half Pagan, is, I think, impossible') and commissioned a copy of it for £250.9
Tavistock also acquired in Rome a set of five bronzes by Giacomo Zoffoli, reproductions of classical figures (Woburn),10 and he sat to Batoni in 1762, the artist exceptionally making a miniature copy (both at Woburn; Clark/ Bowron 249 - 50). He commissioned works from James Forrester who in 1764 had 'some beautiful Views' in his studio destined for Tavistock,11 and the Abb? Chiozzi made drawings for him after frescoes by Guido Reni and Domenichino.(12) With the 3rd Duke of Grafton, he took an interest in John Needham's theories on Egyptian hieroglyphs, and he frequented Sir William Stanhope's house with the Graftons (according to James Adam).(13) In April 1762 he was in Bologna14 - a town that deserved 'three weeks or a month' to visit - and heading for England via Venice.15 The Venetian constitution, he later explained, inspired him with a 'useful' and 'proper dread of aristocracy', and he found the town itself 'the most calculated for luxurious idleness of any place I know' (12 Sep. 1763). Tavistock much impressed the Duke of Savoy in the course of his brief visit to Turin in May 1762,16 and he arrived in England at the end of the month.
1. See J.H. Whiffen, Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, 2:530 - 45 (dates given in brackets). 2. Commons 2, 3:386. 3. Wal.Corr., 21:564; 22:2. 4. W. Fraser, Chiefs of Grant, 2:535. 5. Hinchliffe letters MSS (31 Mar. 1762). 6. Seafield MSS, GD 248/49/2 (D. Crespin, 11 Mar. 1763). Broadlands MSS (G. Hamilton to Ld Palmerston, 2 Aug. 1764). 7. G. Blakiston, Woburn and the Russells, 130. 8. Angelicoussis, 14, 46, 49. 9. Martin jnl.MSS (10 Oct. 1764). 10. See Treasure Houses, nos.283, 287. 11. Martin jnl.MSS (9 Jul. 1764). 12. Ibid. (30 Oct. 1764) 13. Fleming, Adam, 295. 14. Black 1992, 198. 15. Montagu Letters, 3:293nn1, 2. Hinchliffe letters MSS (5 May 1762). 16. SP 105/314, f.162 (Phelps, 12 May 1762).