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拍品专文
There can be little doubt that this newly-discovered portrait by Gainsborough shows a composer. The nonchalant manner in which he holds a rolled up autograph score shows a healthy disrespect for what he must have written and his outward gaze, seeking inspiration, is something that recurs in Gainsborough’s portraits of musicians, for instance in his justly famous full-length of Carl Friedrich Abel in the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, San Marino (H. Belsey, Thomas Gainsborough: The Portraits, Fancy Pictures and Copies after Old Masters, New Haven and London, 2019, I, pp. 16–18, no. 2). Furthermore, there is compelling circumstantial evidence to suggest that the sitter is the Bohemian composer, violinist and colleague of Abel’s, Antonín Kammel (1730–84), who moved in many of the same social and musical circles as Gainsborough in London and Bath in the late 1760s.
Kammel was baptized on 21 April 1730 at Běleč and studied music at Patres Piares College, Slaný. At the University of Prague he studied Philosophy and Law before travelling to Padua to study the violin with the Slovenian virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini. In March 1765, he travelled to England armed with a number of introductions from his father’s employer, Count Vincent Ferrerus Waldstein. These included one to Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, the bigamous wife of Lord Bristol, who had probably met Waldstein during one of her frequent visits to the continent. She sat to Gainsborough for a portrait in the late 1760s or early 1770s, that is known through an etching (ibid., II, pp. 514–15, no. 543).
Once in London Kammel seems to have been taken up by Johann Christian Bach and C.F. Abel, and he contributed the violin to their ensembles (Bach sat to Gainsborough in 1775⁄76, National Portrait Gallery, London; a replica was painted for Bach’s mentor Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna; ibid., I, pp. 47–48, nos. 37 and 38). Despite suffering from indifferent health, Kammel performed at Blandford Forum, Stamford, Salisbury, Northampton, Winchester and perhaps Newbury. He was also a violin teacher and, apart from George Pitt, he was successful in gaining patronage from a number of aristocratic families including Horatio Mann at Bourne Park near Canterbury, Thomas Anson of Shugborough in Staffordshire, Sir William Young of Delaford Place at Iver, Buckinghamshire and his son-in-law, Richard Ottley. His compositions focused on works for strings and perhaps his most notable works are his six string quartets that were first performed in London in 1773.
Unfortunately, there is no known portrait of Kammel so the historian does not have the opportunity of comparing Gainsborough’s portrait with a documented likeness. However, from 1768 to 1770, there is considerable circumstantial evidence to suggest that Gainsborough knew of Antonín Kammel’s contribution to the musical world in Britain. Kammel visited Bath on at least two occasions performing in the city on 8 and 17 November 1768, and in the following year on 14 December. He was probably the leader of the orchestra at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket under Johann Christian Bach during George Pitt’s brief proprietorship of the theatre in 1769⁄70. The concert in Bath in 1769 was advertised in the Bath Chronicle. It took place in Mr Glyde’s Rooms and Kammel performed with Johann Christian Fischer, the oboist (who, briefly and unsuccessfully, became Gainsborough’s son-in-law), John Crosdill, a cellist, and the soprano Elizabeth Linley, whose family were intimate friends of Gainsborough’s. Kammel accompanied the castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci in London and Gainsborough painted portraits of them all (ibid., I, pp. 46–48, 214–15, 315–17, nos. 37–38, 223, 328; and II, pp. 555–58, 756–61, 803–5, nos. 590, 813–14, 867–68). The 1769 concert featured Kammel’s compositions, particularly his string quartets (Op. 4) that were dedicated to George Pitt. Indeed it seems very likely that Pitt attended Kammel’s Bath concerts and on each occasion he was very probably staying with Pitt at his country house, Stratfield Saye near Basingstoke. The two friends must have travelled to Bath together.
In November 1768 Pitt, Gainsborough’s ‘staunch friend’, is recorded visiting Bath when he took the opportunity to sit to Gainsborough for a full-length portrait that was shown at the inaugural exhibition of the Royal Academy in April 1769 (Cleveland Museum of Art; Ibid., II, pp. 712–14, no. 770). According to a letter dated 9 June 1770 addressed to his Exeter friend, William Jackson, Gainsborough apologised for not replying to ‘your last [letter] sooner I have been 3 months from home, at Mr. George Pitt’s Country House’ (quotations from Gainsborough’s letter to James Unwin, dated 10 July 1770, cited in J. Hayes, The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough, New Haven and London, 2001, pp. 76, 78). Whether or not Kammel was still at Stratfield Saye when Gainsborough arrived in March 1770 is not known, but given the mutual interest in music of both guest and host he must have been a subject of conversation. In London, Pitt may have leased part of his property in Half Moon Street off Piccadilly to Kammel and on 7 July 1770 he probably led the orchestra in the first London performance of Gluck’s Orfeo and Euridice. Later on in his career, Revd Samuel Peploe at Garnstone Castle in Herefordshire and his wife Catherine (née Cornwall) were also supporters (Belsey, op. cit., pp. 665–66, no. 716). Kammel died on 8 October 1784 while he was staying with John Cockin Sole, a Kent neighbour of the Manns, and was buried at St Mary’s, Norton leaving a widow and six young children. Sylva Simsová’s book Traces in the Sand, published by the Dvorak Society in 2014, adds hugely to our knowledge of Kammel’s life, and Andrew Baker is presently writing an article about Kammel’s British patrons.
With all this circumstantial evidence there are a couple of details in the portrait that strengthen links to Kammel. The physiognomy of the sitter is continental rather than British and the intaglio ring that he so proudly wears, was probably Italian. Perhaps he acquired it during his visit to Padua ten years before the portrait was painted.
We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for providing this catalogue entry.
Kammel was baptized on 21 April 1730 at Běleč and studied music at Patres Piares College, Slaný. At the University of Prague he studied Philosophy and Law before travelling to Padua to study the violin with the Slovenian virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini. In March 1765, he travelled to England armed with a number of introductions from his father’s employer, Count Vincent Ferrerus Waldstein. These included one to Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston, the bigamous wife of Lord Bristol, who had probably met Waldstein during one of her frequent visits to the continent. She sat to Gainsborough for a portrait in the late 1760s or early 1770s, that is known through an etching (ibid., II, pp. 514–15, no. 543).
Once in London Kammel seems to have been taken up by Johann Christian Bach and C.F. Abel, and he contributed the violin to their ensembles (Bach sat to Gainsborough in 1775⁄76, National Portrait Gallery, London; a replica was painted for Bach’s mentor Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna; ibid., I, pp. 47–48, nos. 37 and 38). Despite suffering from indifferent health, Kammel performed at Blandford Forum, Stamford, Salisbury, Northampton, Winchester and perhaps Newbury. He was also a violin teacher and, apart from George Pitt, he was successful in gaining patronage from a number of aristocratic families including Horatio Mann at Bourne Park near Canterbury, Thomas Anson of Shugborough in Staffordshire, Sir William Young of Delaford Place at Iver, Buckinghamshire and his son-in-law, Richard Ottley. His compositions focused on works for strings and perhaps his most notable works are his six string quartets that were first performed in London in 1773.
Unfortunately, there is no known portrait of Kammel so the historian does not have the opportunity of comparing Gainsborough’s portrait with a documented likeness. However, from 1768 to 1770, there is considerable circumstantial evidence to suggest that Gainsborough knew of Antonín Kammel’s contribution to the musical world in Britain. Kammel visited Bath on at least two occasions performing in the city on 8 and 17 November 1768, and in the following year on 14 December. He was probably the leader of the orchestra at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket under Johann Christian Bach during George Pitt’s brief proprietorship of the theatre in 1769⁄70. The concert in Bath in 1769 was advertised in the Bath Chronicle. It took place in Mr Glyde’s Rooms and Kammel performed with Johann Christian Fischer, the oboist (who, briefly and unsuccessfully, became Gainsborough’s son-in-law), John Crosdill, a cellist, and the soprano Elizabeth Linley, whose family were intimate friends of Gainsborough’s. Kammel accompanied the castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci in London and Gainsborough painted portraits of them all (ibid., I, pp. 46–48, 214–15, 315–17, nos. 37–38, 223, 328; and II, pp. 555–58, 756–61, 803–5, nos. 590, 813–14, 867–68). The 1769 concert featured Kammel’s compositions, particularly his string quartets (Op. 4) that were dedicated to George Pitt. Indeed it seems very likely that Pitt attended Kammel’s Bath concerts and on each occasion he was very probably staying with Pitt at his country house, Stratfield Saye near Basingstoke. The two friends must have travelled to Bath together.
In November 1768 Pitt, Gainsborough’s ‘staunch friend’, is recorded visiting Bath when he took the opportunity to sit to Gainsborough for a full-length portrait that was shown at the inaugural exhibition of the Royal Academy in April 1769 (Cleveland Museum of Art; Ibid., II, pp. 712–14, no. 770). According to a letter dated 9 June 1770 addressed to his Exeter friend, William Jackson, Gainsborough apologised for not replying to ‘your last [letter] sooner I have been 3 months from home, at Mr. George Pitt’s Country House’ (quotations from Gainsborough’s letter to James Unwin, dated 10 July 1770, cited in J. Hayes, The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough, New Haven and London, 2001, pp. 76, 78). Whether or not Kammel was still at Stratfield Saye when Gainsborough arrived in March 1770 is not known, but given the mutual interest in music of both guest and host he must have been a subject of conversation. In London, Pitt may have leased part of his property in Half Moon Street off Piccadilly to Kammel and on 7 July 1770 he probably led the orchestra in the first London performance of Gluck’s Orfeo and Euridice. Later on in his career, Revd Samuel Peploe at Garnstone Castle in Herefordshire and his wife Catherine (née Cornwall) were also supporters (Belsey, op. cit., pp. 665–66, no. 716). Kammel died on 8 October 1784 while he was staying with John Cockin Sole, a Kent neighbour of the Manns, and was buried at St Mary’s, Norton leaving a widow and six young children. Sylva Simsová’s book Traces in the Sand, published by the Dvorak Society in 2014, adds hugely to our knowledge of Kammel’s life, and Andrew Baker is presently writing an article about Kammel’s British patrons.
With all this circumstantial evidence there are a couple of details in the portrait that strengthen links to Kammel. The physiognomy of the sitter is continental rather than British and the intaglio ring that he so proudly wears, was probably Italian. Perhaps he acquired it during his visit to Padua ten years before the portrait was painted.
We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for providing this catalogue entry.