Henry Bone

Portrait of Henry Bone by his son Henry Pierce Bone.

Henry Bone (6 Feb 1755 – 17 Dec.1834) was an English enamel painter who was court painter to George III, George IV and William IV.

Life and work

Francis Drake

Henry Gawler (1766-1852) and his brother John Bellenden Ker (1765-1842) (after Joshua Reynolds)

Henry Bone was born was born in Truro, Cornwall. His father was a cabinet maker and carver of unusual skill. In 1767 Bone's family moved to Plymouth, Devon where Henry was apprenticed, in 1771, to William Cookworthy, the founder of the Plymouth porcelain works, and the first manufacturer of hard-paste china in England. In 1772 Bone moved, with his master, to the Bristol china works, and here he remained for six years, working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and at night studying drawing. The china decoration by Bone is of high merit, and is said to have been marked with the figure "1" in addition to the factory-mark, a small cross.

On the failure of the Bristol works in 1778, Bone came to London with one guinea of his own in his pocket, and five pounds borrowed from a friend. He first found employment in enameling watches and fans, and afterwards in making enamel and watercolour portraits. he became a friend of John Wolcot, and, on his advice, made professional tours in Cornwall. On 24 January 1780 he married Elizabeth Vandermeulen, a descendant of the distinguished battle-painter Adam Frans van der Meulen. The couple went on to have 12 children, 10 of whom survived. In the same year he exhibited his first picture at the Royal Academy, a portrait of his wife, an unusually large enamel for the period. He now gave himself up entirely to enamel-painting, and continued frequently to exhibit at the Academy, initialing most of his works.

In 1789 he exhibited "A Muse and Cupid", the largest ever executed up to that time. In 1800 he was appointed enamel painter to the Prince of Wales; in 1801 he was made an associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) and enamel painter to George III, continuing to hold the appointment during the reigns of George IV and William IV. On 15 April 1811 he was elected a royal academician (RA), and shortly afterwards produced a still larger enamel (eighteen inches by sixteen), after Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne" - More than 4000 people saw the work at Bone's house. The picture was sold to Mr. G. Bowles of Cavendish Square for 2,200 guineas, the sum of which sum was paid (either wholly or partly) in a cheque on Fauntleroy's bank. Bone cashed the cheque on his way home, and next day the bank went broke!

Bone's next great works were a series of historical portraits set in the time of Elizabeth I; the "Cavaliers distinguished in the Civil War", and a series of portraits of the Russell family. The Elizabethan series did not prove a financial success; they were exhibited at his house at 15 Berners Street. In 1831 his eyesight failed, and after having lived successively at Spa Fields, 195 High Holborn, Little Russell Street, Hanover Street, and Berners Street, he moved in that year to Somers Town, and reluctantly received the Royal Academy pension.

He died on 17 Dec. 1834, not without complaining of the neglect with which he had latterly been treated. Some time before his death he offered his collections, which had been valued at £10,000, to the nation for £4,000, but the offer was declined, and on 22 April 1836 they were sold by auction at Christie's, and so dispersed. Other important sales of his works took place in 1846, 1850, 1854, and 1856.

Of his sons, two, Henry Pierce Bone and Robert Trewick Bone, were also notable enamellists; another son, Thomas, a midshipman, was wrecked and drowned, in a sloop called "Racehorse" off the Isle of Man; another, Peter, a lieutenant in the 36th Regiment, was wounded at the Battle of Toulouse, and died soon after his return to England; and another of Bone's sons was called to the bar.

Bone has been well called the "Prince of enamelers" for he has rarely, if ever, been equalled in that field. Mr. J. Jope Rogers published a large catalogue of 1,063 works of the Bone family in the "Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall", No. XXII, for March 1880 - half of which was taken up by works by Henry Bone. He is said to have been "a man of unaffected modesty and generosity; friendship and integrity adorned his private life". Chantrey carved a fine bust of Bone, and John Opie, John Jackson, and Harlow each painted his portrait.

Further reading

• Tregellas, Walter Hawken. Cornish Worthies, volume 1 pp. 159-166 (London: E. Stock, 1884).

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Henry Bone (ArtCyclopedia)
• A pair of enamels (Christie's