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Lot Essay
Traditionally believed to represent the Countess of Coventry, the present work is in fact one of Home's rare early fancy pictures on a neo-classical theme, reflecting the influence of Angelica Kauffmann. Kauffmann instructed Home while he attended the Royal Academy schools in 1769, and she encouraged his further studies in Rome between 1773-9.
This sibylline image appears to date from the years 1778-89, during which period Home was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, while enjoying a busy practice in Dublin. In 1778 he sent to the Royal Academy in London from Dublin an Italian Girl, three-quarter length, and in 1781 four other compositions including a self-portrait (R.A. no. 81) and An Irish Volunteer (R.A. no. 27). During this period he also exhibited a Portrait of an Irish Girl and several portraits of Irish sitters at the Royal Academy, although even after his return to London his Irish contacts continued to fuel his career.
The present image bears close stylistic comparison with the portrait of Dr. John Hunter in the Royal College of Surgeons of approximately this date. Home was related to Dr. Hunter by marriage and he appears to have painted a number of wild animal and natural history subjects on his behalf, much in the manner of Stubbs who was similarly employed. Many of these hang in the Royal College of Surgeons today. On his return from Dublin in 1789 Home exhibited another fancy painting at the Royal Academy, a Portrait of a Lady by Lamplight.
Home's career took on a spectacular new direction after his departure for India in 1790 where he was much patronized by the Irish Wellesley family, painting in particular a series of portraits of the Duke of Wellington between 1804-5, examples of which are at Stratfield Saye and in the Royal collection. He was a prodigious watercolorist executing numerous studies of wild life including two volumes (215 sheets) of watercolors of birds, mammals and reptiles now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta. In August and September 1805 he made two paintings of a rare white Leopard, one of which was presented by Wellesley to George III.
Robert Home's arrival in Lucknow in August 1814, coincided with the succession of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidor as King of Oudh. There, Home was employed as official Lucknow court painter to both King Ghazi and his successor, the Crown Prince Nazir-Ud-Din (see, for instance, the full length Portrait of King Ghazi-Ud-Din in the Costumes of Royal India in the Metropolitan Museum, New York). In the tradition of court artists, he was employed not only for painting pictures, but for designing crowns and regalia, furniture for the palaces, richly ornamental howdahs, carriages and pleasure boats. Many of the drawings for these are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
This sibylline image appears to date from the years 1778-89, during which period Home was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, while enjoying a busy practice in Dublin. In 1778 he sent to the Royal Academy in London from Dublin an Italian Girl, three-quarter length, and in 1781 four other compositions including a self-portrait (R.A. no. 81) and An Irish Volunteer (R.A. no. 27). During this period he also exhibited a Portrait of an Irish Girl and several portraits of Irish sitters at the Royal Academy, although even after his return to London his Irish contacts continued to fuel his career.
The present image bears close stylistic comparison with the portrait of Dr. John Hunter in the Royal College of Surgeons of approximately this date. Home was related to Dr. Hunter by marriage and he appears to have painted a number of wild animal and natural history subjects on his behalf, much in the manner of Stubbs who was similarly employed. Many of these hang in the Royal College of Surgeons today. On his return from Dublin in 1789 Home exhibited another fancy painting at the Royal Academy, a Portrait of a Lady by Lamplight.
Home's career took on a spectacular new direction after his departure for India in 1790 where he was much patronized by the Irish Wellesley family, painting in particular a series of portraits of the Duke of Wellington between 1804-5, examples of which are at Stratfield Saye and in the Royal collection. He was a prodigious watercolorist executing numerous studies of wild life including two volumes (215 sheets) of watercolors of birds, mammals and reptiles now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta. In August and September 1805 he made two paintings of a rare white Leopard, one of which was presented by Wellesley to George III.
Robert Home's arrival in Lucknow in August 1814, coincided with the succession of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidor as King of Oudh. There, Home was employed as official Lucknow court painter to both King Ghazi and his successor, the Crown Prince Nazir-Ud-Din (see, for instance, the full length Portrait of King Ghazi-Ud-Din in the Costumes of Royal India in the Metropolitan Museum, New York). In the tradition of court artists, he was employed not only for painting pictures, but for designing crowns and regalia, furniture for the palaces, richly ornamental howdahs, carriages and pleasure boats. Many of the drawings for these are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.