Wynn, Sir Watkin Williams, 4th Bt
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- Wynn, Sir Watkin Williams, 4th Bt
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(1748 - 89) of Wynnstay, Denb., e. s. of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn; suc. fa. 1749 as 4th Bt.; educ. Westminster and Oriel Oxf. 1766; m. 1 1769 Ldy. Henrietta Somerset (d. 1769), dau. of 4th D. of Beaufort, 2 1771 Charlotte Grenville; MP 1772 - 89; Dilettanti 1775.
1768 - 9 [dep. London 7 Jun. 1768] Turin (19 Aug. - 6 Sep.), Genoa (8 - 12 Sep.), Milan (13 - 29 Sep.), Bologna (1 - 10 Oct.), Florence (11 - 27 Oct.), Pisa, Leghorn, Siena, Rome (2 Nov. - 9 Dec.), Naples (11 - 31 Dec. 1768), Rome (1 - 8 Jan. 1769), Venice (15 - 20 Jan.) [London 15 Feb.]
His father had died before he was two years old and, on leaving Oxford in May 1768, Sir Watkin set out for Italy with a friend of his own age, Captain Edward Hamilton, and an older man Thomas Apperley, a neighbour from Plas Grono who had also been at Oriel College. Though his first impressions of Italy seem to have been less than enthusiastic, Sir Watkin dispensed patronage on a lavish scale and returned home with the reputation of a Welsh Maecenas.1 The accounts of the tour, kept by Samuel Sidebotham, provide a wealth of detail concerning the itinerary and expenditure; thus at Naples on 17 December successive and poignant entries read 'I gave towards burying an Old Woman' and 'Pd for a Gold Snuff Box'.2
Sir Watkin's party was joined in Paris by the valet Antonio Carrara, whom Garrick had brought back from Italy in 1765, and there are regular payments to Hamilton, Apperley, Carrara and a Mr Morris in the accounts. They arrived in Turin on 19 August and passed on to Genoa and Milan, where Sir Watkin wrote to his steward, 'I own I had rather be in old England than where I am. All this fuss of being presented first at one court, & then at another does not please me much'.3 But in mid-September he went with Hamilton and Lord Kildare to Lake Maggiore which Kildare, at least, found 'beyond description'.4 After passing through Bologna, they came to Florence where they stayed at Hadfield's. Sir Watkin's largesse first became evident on the occasion of the investiture of Horace Mann as a Knight of the Bath; he had attended Mann's grand dinner on 21 October and then four days later he gave a great dinner himself at Hadfield's country residence, the Palazzo Bruciato,5 'followed by a great concert of music and a ball in the evening'. Mann felt particularly obliged to Sir Watkin, whom he had not known 'till a few days ago'.6 Sir Watkin, Hamilton, Apperley and Carrara appeared in a caricature group by Thomas Patch (untraced), who also introduced Sir Watkin in another with Lord Berkeley and Lord Beauchamp (WSL), and etched Sir Watkin's head (making him appear grossly overweight). Sir Watkin bought works from the sculptor Francis Harwood (some vases, a chequer table of all sorts of Marble, and twelve pieces of marble made like books), while Lamberto Gori promised him two scagliola tables within seven months (26 Oct.). In two weeks at Florence Sir Watkin had spent over £600, including a donation of £100 to Boswell's appeal on behalf of 'the Brave Corsicans'. They spent a week travelling through Pisa, Leghorn and Siena to Rome where they arrived early in November. Again Sir Watkin sounded despondent 'the more of this Country I see, the more I prefer my own',7 but he appears to have overcome his indifference in the course of his six-week residence at Benedetto's.
He acquired a drawing master, James Forrester, while the Anglo-Italian Charles [Carlo] Wiseman attended his musical interests. He was in Rome at the same time as the 5th Duke of Devonshire; they went to Tivoli together on 15 November and shared a course of antiquities under James Byres, who duly profited by the association. He sold Sir Watkin over £1000 worth of works of art (two cameos, a ring, prints etc. and nine pictures are listed in the disbursements; 3 Dec. 1768 and 7 Jan. 1769), besides receiving a commission to design a new house for him at Wynnstay (his designs were not executed).8 Thomas Jenkins sold him eight pictures, two marble statues and an intaglio (7 Jan. 1769, £200) and Gavin Hamilton five pictures (ibid., £350). Nor did Sir Watkin neglect contemporary art. He sat to Hewetson for his bust in terracotta (dated 1769; NGI; 'bust in clay of Sr Watkin & some Casts from it'; 7 Jan. 1769), and he commissioned a landscape from Hugh Dean (18 Jul. 1769), besides a copy from Raphael by Maron (ibid.), and a set of Piranesi's etchings. But his most celebrated commissions were those he gave to Batoni - the portrait of himself with Apperley and Hamilton, all full-length figures (NMW; Clark/Bowron 347), and a history piece; initial payments were made for the former on 3 December 1768 and for the latter on 6 January 1769, but Batoni took his time and the portrait was still in Rome in April 1772, while the history piece, which became Bacchus and Ariadne (priv. coll. Italy; Clark/Bowron 353), was not finished until 1774.9 From Mengs, who was then in Spain, Sir Watkin left a commission for a Perseus and Andromeda; Byres was probably the agent, but the picture was not finished until 1778 (it was then captured at sea and is now at St Petersburg).(10)
From Rome they went on to Naples where they stayed three weeks at Stephano's. The Wynn accounts record visits to the surrounding sights, and Sir Watkin embarked on a lifelong friendship with William Hamilton (from whom he acquired the first two volumes of d'Hancarville's Antiquit?s Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines). They were back in Rome for the New Year and during this brief second visit Sir Watkin became involved in a fracas with the painter James Barry, who alleged that Byres, Forrester, Dean and Hewetson were preventing him from enjoying Sir Watkin's patronage.(11) On 7 January Sir Watkin paid the Abb? Grant for a fan-mount. The next day they set out for Venice where they arrived on 15 January. The last pictures purchased by Sir Watkin were '2 small Pictures of Titian's at Padua' on 20 January, which at 63 lires were presumably less remarkable than most of his other acquisitions. On 15 February Sir Watkin and his party were back in London.
1. See R.B. Ford, Apollo, 99[1974]:434 - 9, and T.W. Pritchard, Wynns at Wynnstay, [1982], 5 - 12. 2. Wynn disbursements MSS; bracketed dates refer. 3. Pritchard (at n1), 7 (n.d.). 4. Leinster Corr., 3:538. 5. Gazz.Tosc., 29 Oct. 1768. 6. Wal.Corr., 23:64. 7. Pritchard (at n1), 9 (Rome, 5 Nov. 1768). 8. Thorpe letters MSS (10 Jan. 1770*). T. Mowl, Apollo, 142[1995]:33 - 41. 9. See Thorpe letters MSS (13 Mar., 25 Dec. 1771; 9 Mar. 1774). Home jnl.MSS (30 Apr. 1772). 10. Mengs 1993, 32, 34. 11. Barry, Works, 1:114 - 16.