Adam's IRISH OLD MASTERS 5th November 2024

-1741), was Pearce’s uncle for whom he built Bellamont Forest, his Palladian masterpiece in County Cavan. For good measure, and illustrating how tightly-knit was this circle, Charles Jervas painted portraits of Alger - non Coote and his wife Diana. Friends of Jervas and cousins of Pearce, the Carters, husband and wife, sat at the heart of a key nexus of architectural and artistic patronage at the crucial moment in the 1730s when the confidence of Geor - gian Ireland was at its height, as best expressed in the extraordinary – if arguably hubristic – palazzi that the new elite, political, legal and ecclesiastical, built for themselves on Henrietta Street. Carter was a founding member of the Dublin Society and was a keen agri - cultural improver, ‘He imported the best breeds of cattle and built several mills for grinding corn’ ( ibid ). In addition to the 4,000 acres he inherited near Trim – and extensive estates in County Roscommon – in 1729 Carter took a lease on Castlemartin in County Kildare, which remained in his family until the end of the cen- tury. But it is Pearce’s extraordinary building at No 9 Henrietta Street that stands as ‘a very visible manifes- tation of [Carter’s] wealth and success, and provided the perfect setting in which to pursue his schemes for success’ (Hayes, op cit .). Carter died in his son’s resi - dence Rathnally House, County Meath on 3 September 1763 and is buried in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Trim. No. 9 Henrietta Street is now owned by the Daughters of Charity. Despite his seemingly prickly character, Carter clearly enjoyed a warm friendship with the artist Charles Jervas, a friendship commemorated in his portrait. The portrait of Thomas, is signed (Jervas signs his work exceptionally rarely) and is dated 1734. It is further inscribed as having been painted in Dublin, rare evi - dence of the London-based artist’s practice of painting on his not infrequent visits home. An obvious place for Jervas to have set up his temporary studio was in his client and friend’s house in Henrietta Street. For this was a special commission and the portrait of Thomas is further inscribed by Jervas ‘ amicitiae ergo ’ for the sake of friendship attesting to the close relationship between artist and the sitters. The portrait of Thomas is likely to have been completed first, no doubt to hang in Henrietta Street. It was engraved by John Brooks. Carter is shown in his law library surround by the volumes of precedent. The portrait of Mary by contrast shows her in a sylvan setting gesturing to her husband. Jervas portrays his friend as a genial figure suggesting another side of his character to the scheming law - yer on the make; Francis Plowden describes Carter ‘keeping the table in a roar of laughter by his archness, vivacity and wit’. Charles Jervas was the most successful Irish-born artist of the first half of the eighteenth century and among the first Irish artist to study in Italy. He was born in, or about, 1675 in Shinrone, King County (Offaly) and is recorded in 1697-98 in the letters of administration for the estate of his father who had died at Cape May in America as ‘Charles Jervas, of the City of Dublin, Gent’. He studied in London under Sir Godfrey Kneller (1645-1723), with whom he lived for a year, and in 1694 he made copies of the Raphael Cartoons at Hampton Court. With the sup - port of patrons including Dr George Clarke of All Souls College, Oxford (who bought some paintings and lent him funds) he travelled to Italy, via Paris, in 1699. Jervas stayed in Rome (where he was known as Carlo Jervassi) for about ten years, copying old masters and improving his drawing skills. On his return to London in 1708/9 he commenced on his successful career as a portrait painter, marrying a wealthy widow, Penelope Hume. His studio in Cleveland Court, St. James’s and house at Hampton in Middlesex became centres of the London literary world. Among his friends and sitters were Jo - seph Addison (1672-1719) and Alexander Pope (1688- 1744) (whom he taught to paint and who eulogised him in verse), along with Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Of particular, note, too, is his series of portraits of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) who sat for him several times between 1709 and 1716. Moving in such circles, it is not surpris - ing that Jervas developed literary pretensions himself, and he translated Don Quixote, though this was not published until 1742, after his death. Jervas revisited Ireland on several occasions. He is recorded here in 1716, staying with Swift in St Patrick’s Deanery, and again for a lengthy period at the end of the decade, once more a guest of Swift and, in addition to producing a translation of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469- 1527), on this visit, he was certainly painting portraits, including one of William King (1650-1729) Archbishop of Dublin. Further visits occurred in 1729 and 1734 where he signed this portrait of Carter. Among his other Irish sitters were William ‘Speaker’ Conolly (1662-1729), and John Boyle, later 5th earl of Cork (1707-62) (Swift’s friend) and members of the Cosby family of Stradbally. Jervas also maintained an estate in Ireland. In 1723, on the death of Kneller, Jervas was appointed Principal Painter to George I, a position he retained under his successor. He visited Italy again in 1738, possibly to acquire works of art for the crown but also ‘in hope of some reprieve from asthma’ and died shortly after his return. His large collection of paintings was sold by auc - tion in March 1740. Thomas Carter, shown in this friend- ship portrait, acted as the executor of Jervas’s will. Adam’s are very grateful to Peter Aronsson and Melanie Hayes whose published researches on Thomas Carter and 9 Henrietta Street inform this note.