Lot Essay
With lot ... this was on a page in the Album inscribed by Miss Moore 'Mrs Wainwright's'. See lot ... for a possible identification of this owner with the wife of the notorious Thomas Griffiths Wainewright.
It is difficult to identify likenesses as between heads seen from different angles, but is is possible that the model for this drawing is Harriot Mellon, the subject of a profile drawing sold in these Rooms on 18 March 1980, lot 21, repr. The drawing is inscribed 'H.M.', 'S. H. [Somerset House]. may 29.15.' and with a quotation in Greek from Euripedes' Hippolytus, II, 640-1: 'I hate a clever woman; for never in my house, at least, may there be a woman cleverer than a woman should be'.
Harriot [sic] Mellon (1777-1837) was an actress; in 1815 she became the second wife of Fuseli's patron the banker Thomas Coutts and in 1827 she married the Duke of St. Albans. However, no evidence is given for the identification of 'H.M.' with Harriot Mellon so one is tempted, without any supporting evidence, to identify the sitter with Harriet Moore, the owner of these drawings.
Alternatively, this may be one of the cases in which Fuseli has abandoned actual portraiture for a more generalized depcition of a courtesan as in, for instance, two drawing at Zurich, S. 1624 and 1626
It is difficult to identify likenesses as between heads seen from different angles, but is is possible that the model for this drawing is Harriot Mellon, the subject of a profile drawing sold in these Rooms on 18 March 1980, lot 21, repr. The drawing is inscribed 'H.M.', 'S. H. [Somerset House]. may 29.15.' and with a quotation in Greek from Euripedes' Hippolytus, II, 640-1: 'I hate a clever woman; for never in my house, at least, may there be a woman cleverer than a woman should be'.
Harriot [sic] Mellon (1777-1837) was an actress; in 1815 she became the second wife of Fuseli's patron the banker Thomas Coutts and in 1827 she married the Duke of St. Albans. However, no evidence is given for the identification of 'H.M.' with Harriot Mellon so one is tempted, without any supporting evidence, to identify the sitter with Harriet Moore, the owner of these drawings.
Alternatively, this may be one of the cases in which Fuseli has abandoned actual portraiture for a more generalized depcition of a courtesan as in, for instance, two drawing at Zurich, S. 1624 and 1626