Lot Essay
James Graham was born in April 1761, the second son of the Rev. Robert Graham of Netherby, and his wife Frances, daughter of Sir Reginald Graham, 4th Bt, of Norton Conyers. On the death of his elder brother Charles, on 2 February 1782, he succeeded to the estates at Netherby. At the end of that year he made preparations for his journey to the continent, and in December, in the company of his friend the Rev. Thomas Brand, left Dover for the Grand Tour.
They spent several months in France and Switzerland, and arrived at Turin in October 1783. It is possible to follow their route, who they met and what they saw from Brand's correspondence and the journals he kept throughout the trip. From Turin they went on to Genoa, Parma and had reached Bologna by 11 November. Early the following year they are recorded in Naples, leaving at the end of February to travel back via Rome, where they stayed for almost two months. In Naples they had met the Rev. John Parkinson, who was travelling with his pupil Jonas Langford Brooke, an old college friend of Graham's, and they met again in Rome, when they were all dining at the Villa Madama. Together they took a course in antiquities, with other friends also making the tour. In the late Spring Graham and Brand left Rome for Florence, where they stayed for a few days before continuing their journey to Venice, where they arrived on 15 May. Here again they met Parkinson and Langford Brooke and stayed for about a fortnight. Graham and Brand continued on their journey home, and are last recorded at Geneva on 28 June 1784. Brooke, meanwhile, had travelled on to Milan and was staying at the Auberge Imperiale, where he was stricken with a fever and died a few days later on 19 July.
The devasting blow that Brooke's death must have caused can be gauged by the high regard in which he was held, both by his influential neighbours in Cheshire when writing letters of introduction to ambassadors on his behalf (for example, from Lord Stamford at Dunham Massey to Lord Torrington in Brussels), and by the touching letter from fellow tutor Thomas Brand, accompanying Graham, to Parkinson. This emphasises the very great loss with the young man's death, because of the 'excellence of Mr Brooke's character'. By all accounts Graham too had suffered from ill-health. In the same letter, written at Doncaster on 20 September 1784, Brand writes 'My own alarms of a similar nature for Sir James at Naples made me but so much more sensible of your misery'.
Graham arrived home in late 1784, but he was obviously almost continually unwell. In another letter to Parkinson, written from Christ College, Cambridge, on 1 December the following year, Thomas Brand says that 'Graham has had almost constant ill health since we came home and to say the truth had much more need of a nurse than a wife... I am afraid the Cumberland gentry did him no good. The Stile (sic) of Hospitality in that country borders to much upon riot & excess & Sir J. Graham would pique himself upon making every man as happy as Netherby and Claret could make him'.
On 15 January 1783 Graham was created a baronet. On 28 September 1785 (although Burke's Peerage and Baronetage gives it as 1782) he married Lady Catherine Stewart, daughter of John, 7th Earl of Galloway. They had several children: James, who succeeded as 2nd Bt, Charles, who was a distinguished naval officer, George, who joined the Indian Army, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Caroline, Harriett and Charlotte. Graham was a Member of Parliament between 1794 and 1807; he died on 13 April 1824, and was succeeded by his eldest son James as 2nd Bt.
Hamilton went to Rome in 1778, having already established a very successful portrait practice in London. Through James Byers, the Scottish architect and cicerone, he received many introductions to important patrons, and it is possibly through this connection that he met Graham, although Brand, having made the Tour before, also had very good connections. Both Graham and Brand sat to Angelica Kauffmann while in Rome; her accounts record 'December 1783 - For Sir James Graham English chevalier, the portrait of the above on canvas paid 24 Zecchini half the sum as paid for at the first sitting' and 'For Mr Brand English Reverend, a portrait of the above on canvas life size head, not including hands, half the sum paid for at the first sitting and receipted 24 Zecchini' (see Lady V. Manners and G.C. Williamson, Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.; Her life and Works, 1924, p.144). According to Parkinson's journals, when he and Brooke were in Venice in May 1784, Brooke apparently 'sat to Mr Hamilton for his Picture' on the 28th. A pastel portrait by Hamilton said to be of Jonas Langford Brooke, of identical description to the present drawing, was offered in these Rooms by J.W. Robinson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 19 July 1926, lot 12; it was unsold and returned to the owner. A photograph of this portrait in the Witt Library shows it to be exactly the same as the present picture; it is possible that Brooke originally sat to Hamilton, but as he left Venice so soon after Parkinson's note, it was changed at some stage into a portrait of Graham, following Brooke's death, with the inscription obviously referring to the old friendship between himself and Langford Brooke; the suggestion of stream in the lower left of the picture is possibly a pictorial pun on the name Brooke. It is also possible that there were two portraits but that of Brooke is now lost.
We are indebted to the Brinsley Ford Archive, the Paul Mellon Centre, for their help in preparing this catalogue entry.
They spent several months in France and Switzerland, and arrived at Turin in October 1783. It is possible to follow their route, who they met and what they saw from Brand's correspondence and the journals he kept throughout the trip. From Turin they went on to Genoa, Parma and had reached Bologna by 11 November. Early the following year they are recorded in Naples, leaving at the end of February to travel back via Rome, where they stayed for almost two months. In Naples they had met the Rev. John Parkinson, who was travelling with his pupil Jonas Langford Brooke, an old college friend of Graham's, and they met again in Rome, when they were all dining at the Villa Madama. Together they took a course in antiquities, with other friends also making the tour. In the late Spring Graham and Brand left Rome for Florence, where they stayed for a few days before continuing their journey to Venice, where they arrived on 15 May. Here again they met Parkinson and Langford Brooke and stayed for about a fortnight. Graham and Brand continued on their journey home, and are last recorded at Geneva on 28 June 1784. Brooke, meanwhile, had travelled on to Milan and was staying at the Auberge Imperiale, where he was stricken with a fever and died a few days later on 19 July.
The devasting blow that Brooke's death must have caused can be gauged by the high regard in which he was held, both by his influential neighbours in Cheshire when writing letters of introduction to ambassadors on his behalf (for example, from Lord Stamford at Dunham Massey to Lord Torrington in Brussels), and by the touching letter from fellow tutor Thomas Brand, accompanying Graham, to Parkinson. This emphasises the very great loss with the young man's death, because of the 'excellence of Mr Brooke's character'. By all accounts Graham too had suffered from ill-health. In the same letter, written at Doncaster on 20 September 1784, Brand writes 'My own alarms of a similar nature for Sir James at Naples made me but so much more sensible of your misery'.
Graham arrived home in late 1784, but he was obviously almost continually unwell. In another letter to Parkinson, written from Christ College, Cambridge, on 1 December the following year, Thomas Brand says that 'Graham has had almost constant ill health since we came home and to say the truth had much more need of a nurse than a wife... I am afraid the Cumberland gentry did him no good. The Stile (sic) of Hospitality in that country borders to much upon riot & excess & Sir J. Graham would pique himself upon making every man as happy as Netherby and Claret could make him'.
On 15 January 1783 Graham was created a baronet. On 28 September 1785 (although Burke's Peerage and Baronetage gives it as 1782) he married Lady Catherine Stewart, daughter of John, 7th Earl of Galloway. They had several children: James, who succeeded as 2nd Bt, Charles, who was a distinguished naval officer, George, who joined the Indian Army, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Caroline, Harriett and Charlotte. Graham was a Member of Parliament between 1794 and 1807; he died on 13 April 1824, and was succeeded by his eldest son James as 2nd Bt.
Hamilton went to Rome in 1778, having already established a very successful portrait practice in London. Through James Byers, the Scottish architect and cicerone, he received many introductions to important patrons, and it is possibly through this connection that he met Graham, although Brand, having made the Tour before, also had very good connections. Both Graham and Brand sat to Angelica Kauffmann while in Rome; her accounts record 'December 1783 - For Sir James Graham English chevalier, the portrait of the above on canvas paid 24 Zecchini half the sum as paid for at the first sitting' and 'For Mr Brand English Reverend, a portrait of the above on canvas life size head, not including hands, half the sum paid for at the first sitting and receipted 24 Zecchini' (see Lady V. Manners and G.C. Williamson, Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.; Her life and Works, 1924, p.144). According to Parkinson's journals, when he and Brooke were in Venice in May 1784, Brooke apparently 'sat to Mr Hamilton for his Picture' on the 28th. A pastel portrait by Hamilton said to be of Jonas Langford Brooke, of identical description to the present drawing, was offered in these Rooms by J.W. Robinson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 19 July 1926, lot 12; it was unsold and returned to the owner. A photograph of this portrait in the Witt Library shows it to be exactly the same as the present picture; it is possible that Brooke originally sat to Hamilton, but as he left Venice so soon after Parkinson's note, it was changed at some stage into a portrait of Graham, following Brooke's death, with the inscription obviously referring to the old friendship between himself and Langford Brooke; the suggestion of stream in the lower left of the picture is possibly a pictorial pun on the name Brooke. It is also possible that there were two portraits but that of Brooke is now lost.
We are indebted to the Brinsley Ford Archive, the Paul Mellon Centre, for their help in preparing this catalogue entry.