DRAWINGS BY JOHN DOWNMAN A.R.A., FROM THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN(Lots 166-186) Art history normally warms to painters who have a distinctive, instantly recognisable voice; but it can struggle to cope with artists who achieve that by using a personal technique that does not fit into the standard pigeon-holes. Downman was neither painter, nor watercolourist, nor pastellist (although he was sometimes each of these); his idiosyncratic technique, which combined wash, chalk and pastel, was based on his masterly use of stumping – blending chalk (black works better than red) with a tight roll of paper or leather. In Downman’s hands, light and shade flowed like liquid across the surface of his paper (some later artists called this technique “sauce”): chalk was no longer a graphic tool. While not known as a printmaker (although he did make one experimental lithograph in 1806, and some of his drawings were engraved by others), Downman’s tonalities are reminiscent of mezzotint or stipple engraving.There are few parallels with other British artists: he could be seen perhaps as a continuation of early Hamilton (at least with his finely honed faces), or as similar to Edridge or Lawrence – but their drawing is more uniformly precise than Downman’s. A more interesting comparison is with the French draughtsman Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine (although there is no evidence that either artist knew the other’s work). Lemoine also employed stumping to great effect, and, an accomplished miniaturist, revived a technique associated with Liotard and practised too by Downman, in which parts of the drawings (notably the faces) were enhanced and given a special luminosity by the addition of colour on the reverse of the sheet. Downman did this by working with very thin sheets of translucent paper. The technique served to guide the eye to the most important part of the portrait, and the use of the soft-focus stumping reinforced this sophisticated redirection. It has also been suggested that this technique facilitated the production of the numerous repetitions Downman made of his drawings by tracing.It is hard to see how Downman got to this process. He was born in Wales, the son of a lawyer. From around 1769 he was a pupil of the hugely important Benjamin West in London. But West, whose ambitions were for history painting, not portraiture, and who abominated minor arts (persuading Copley to drop pastel on his arrival in London), would hardly have encouraged Downman’s innovation (although the pupil inscribed a drawing as of his “most beloved teacher”). His trip to Italy with Joseph Wright of Derby, 1773–75, might have sparked an interest in the soft chalk method that Wright sometimes employed (often referred to as grisaille pastel), although the topographical drawings Downman made on this journey had some way to go before the technique we see in his portraits emerged.When Downman returned to England, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, but was never fully comfortable there: already the pigeon-holing disadvantaged him, as the Academy would not show his pictures in the principal rooms since they were drawings. He received little critical attention, one comment (on the 1789 Royal Academy) being that “he had but two passable faces, one face for ladies, and another for gentlemen.” It was not until the age of 45 that he became an associate, and he was never a full member. That did not stop him enjoying a tremendous vogue: according to a report in the Morning Post in 1786, his portraits were “universally admired & sought after by the first people of rank and fashion”. His sitters ranged from royalty (the important portrait of Queen Charlotte in the present group, lot 166, was executed shortly after Benjamin West’s portrait of her) and duchesses (both those of Devonshire) to the theatre (Mrs Siddons) and the provincial middle classes (he settled in Cambridge on his return from Italy, and later lived in Devon).The present group of some 20 such drawings (plus one of his rare, highly finished oils on copper) spans some forty years from 1780 on. Each sheet redolent of the reign of George III, the group immediately demonstrates a far wider range than we might expect if we only encounter his work piece by piece, and encourage us to re-examine a reputation that has seen more ups and downs than most. Although many of the portraits incorporate stock devices such as pillars and curtains, their intimacy is assured by their size. The group portrait, lot 173, is a particular delight. Downman’s work was probably too French in feel to suit the London establishment of his day (Francophilia expired during the wars in the middle of the eighteenth century). Jibes such as the 1789 critic’s reinforced a misunderstanding of his art, which was no more about likeness than Carmontelle’s – and in any case can be seen, with the two superb (and fully individuated) portraits of older ladies in this group (lots 178 and 180), to be false; but while it is true that Downman’s portraits are a long way from the high seriousness of say Romney’s paintings, they are equally far from the vapid gouaches of a Chinnery or Masquerier that were also promoted by London dealers around 1900 (those which provoked Lionel Cust’s withering description of the “namby-pamby style” of British pastellists, with lasting damage to the reputation of all portrait draughtsmen of the period). A monographic exhibition in Cambridge in 1996, with an excellent catalogue, revived interest; there are important groups of his drawings at the Fitzwilliam Musem and at the British Museum.Neil Jeffares

John Downman, A.R.A. ( Ruabon, Wales 1750-1824 Wrexham)

Portrait of Queen Charlotte, small full-length, wearing a pale blue dress, seated, with a small dog at her feet, and an extensive landscape beyond

Details

John Downman, A.R.A. ( Ruabon, Wales 1750-1824 Wrexham)
Portrait of Queen Charlotte, small full-length, wearing a pale blue dress, seated, with a small dog at her feet, and an extensive landscape beyond
signed and dated 'J Downman/del/1784' (centre, on a pillar)
pencil, black chalk, stump and watercolour heightened with white
20 ½ x 13 in. (52.1 x 33 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 9 July 1991, lot 55, where purchased by the present owner.

Lot Essay

Downman executed another drawing of Queen Charlotte, dated 1783, on the reverse of which is a long inscription regarding the sitting, `Her Majesty of England, 1783 1st sitting. She was Sophia Charlotte, Princess of Meclenburg-Strelitz. She sat in the Queen’s Closet, Buckingham House. His Majesty came in with Lords North and Grantham and two others. Presently the two eldest Princesses. The King said to the Princess Royal, `Are you also prepared to sit?’…. I also drew their portrait and groups in whole lengths, and a whole length of the Queen for the Duchess of Ancaster, and two others’. It is possible that the present drawing is one of the full-lengths referred to in this inscription. G.C. Williamson, John Downman, A.R.A. His Life and Works, 1907, illustrates a half-length portrait, dated 1762, opposite p. viii.

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