ADAM'S Country House Collections 15th October 2019

140 Country House Collections 211 NATHANIEL HONE THE ELDER, RA (1718-1784) Portrait of a Girl with a Cat, c.1780 Oil on canvas, 49 x 40cm Provenance: With the Gorry Gallery, Dublin, March 2005 € 15,000 - 20,000 Nathaniel Hone the Elder was born in Dublin in 1718 to parents of Dutch descent, however very little is known of his early life. Moving to London in the 1740s, it is unclear as to where Hone received his artistic training but he was able to quickly establish himself as a notable miniaturist, working with enamels. This practice and the unforgiving diligence towards detail that it de- manded shaped Hone into the oil painter that he was to become. His oils portray the sentiment that is common to miniatures, allowing his grander pieces to evoke a sympathy often lost with scale. In particular, Hone can be recognised for his endearing portrayals of children which, unlike many of his contemporaries, he depicted in a realistically juvenile manner, as opposed to showing his sitters as small adults. Experimenting with styles, Hone adopted a way of painting that was a marriage of the traditional portrait and a ‘fancy picture’. Popular in the 18th century, ‘fan- cy pictures’ were images of everyday life that held an element of imagination and, thus, Hone’s ‘fancy portraits’ were imbued with a whimsy that became characteristic of the artist. Painted as part of a series that Hone undertook of his grandchildren during the 1760s and 1770s, ‘Portrait of a Girl with a Cat’ is a beautiful rendition of childhood innocence. Utilising the time that Hone spent studying in both Florence and Rome, his model is painted with a softness that recalls the Italian Renaissance. The large eyes are indicative of the girl’s young age, whilst her cheeks are flushed with childish vigour. As with the other paintings in this series, the girl has been placed against a dark, plain background in order to focus our attention solely on the sitter. Her youthful skin appears luminescent against the gloom, anchoring our vision and capturing us in a mesmerising gaze. Showing his imaginative streak, Hone has painted his sitter alongside, what we can assume, is her pet cat, much like in his painting of the same series, ‘A Young Girl with a Pomeranian Dog ’. Showing off his ability to depict fur, Hone often included an- imals in his portraits as a way in which to convey a certain story or affect a particular mood. Here, the cat works to highlight the child’s unassuming innocence. The cradling pose in which the cat is embraced is evidence of the affection between the two, the tenderness of the girl’s touch mirroring the way in which she herself might be held. With the fantasy that dances alongside youth, the girl seems to be smiling at her creation as she swaddles her pet in cloth, as if the animal itself was a fine lady. In a manner befitting that of a child, the young girl has made her cat into a co-conspirator, a friend with which she can explore the world. With his endearing portrayal, Hone successfully combines the art of the miniature, the portrait and the fancy picture to bring to life a work that is not only technically brilliant but emotionally charged. The viewer, as a stranger, feels instantly connected to his sitter, tempted by her naivety and wishing to share in her innocent delight.