WILLIAM HOARE R.A.
Eye 1707 - 1792 Bath
Henry Seymour Conway (1721 - 1795)
Pastel on paper
23 ¼ x 17 ¼ in (59 x 44 cm)
Held in its original giltwood ‘Hoare of Bath’ frame.
Provenance
Lauder collection, Derbyshire, from circa 1920;
Thence by descent.
We are grateful to Professor Brian Allen for confirming the attribution to William Hoare of Bath following his first hand inspection of the pastel.
Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway (1721 – 1795) was a British general and statesman. A brother of the 1st Marquess of Hertford, and cousin of Horace Walpole, he began his military career in the War of the Austrian Succession and eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal (1793).
Conway was the second son of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Baron Conway, by his third wife, Charlotte. He entered Eton College in 1732 and from that time enjoyed a close friendship with his cousin Horace Walpole. Conway's English residence was Park Place at Remenham in Berkshire.
On 19 December 1747 he married Caroline, the widow of Charles Bruce, 4th Earl of Elgin and 3rd Earl of Ailesbury, and daughter of Lieutenant-General John Campbell, later the 4th Duke of Argyll. They had one daughter, the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer.
Conway joined the Molesworth's Regiment of Dragoons in 1737 as a Lieutenant, being promoted to Captain-lieutenant (the equivalent of lieutenant-colonel) in the 8th Dragoons in 1740. In 1745 he fought at Fontenoy, distinguishing himself, when only 24 of his company survived. He was engaged in Culloden in 1746 during the Jacobite Rebellion. His next battle was at Lauffeld, in which he narrowly escaped death, being captured by the French but released on parole three days later. In 1748, he transferred from the 48th Foot to the 34th Foot, and served with his regiment in the garrison of Minorca in 1751.
Conway entered politics at an early age. He was elected unopposed to the Irish Parliament in 1741 for Antrim County, and to the British Parliament for Higham Ferrers in 1741 on the recommendation of Sir Robert Walpole. In this period he spent his winters in Parliament and his summers on active military service. He was elected in 1747 for Penryn and for St Mawes in 1754, both in the Boscawen interest.
In 1755, he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland by William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, the new Lord Lieutenant. He then finally took his seat for County Antrim in the Irish House of Commons. He was promoted a Major-General in 1756 and returned to England in May, but remained an Irish MP until 1761. He became a Lord of the Bedchamber in 1757.
Conway was the British military second in command on the Rochefort expedition in 1757, and repeatedly advocated an attack on Fort Fouras, but his colleagues would only agree a night attack (which failed). He then refused to take sole responsibility for a day attack. Ultimately the expedition returned to Portsmouth having achieved nothing. Though Mordaunt (the commander in chief) was acquitted by his court martial, the affair damaged both their reputations. In his displeasure, George II refused to employ Conway on the 1758 campaigns, and he was not employed again until the next reign.
In 1761, he served in Germany as deputy to John Manners, Marquess of Granby. He was also present at the Battle of Wilhelmsthal in June 1762, and captured the castle of Waldeck the following month.
Conway was mentored in his political career by his cousin Horace Walpole. He was re-elected to the House of Commons in 1761, this time for Thetford, which he represented until 1774. Like Walpole he was a senior member of the Rockingham faction of the Whigs. He opposed the King's action against John Wilkes in 1763, to declare this a breach of Parliamentary Privilege. This resulted in his dismissal as a Groom of the Bedchamber and as Colonel of the 1st Dragoons. This led to the publication of pamphlets, as it was feared that the government intended to purge the army of its political opponents.
He entered office with Lord Rockingham as Secretary of State for the Southern Department in 1765 before switching to the Northern Department the next year, serving until his resignation in 1768. In these offices, Conway sought to urge a moderate policy towards the American colonies, being the principal supporter of the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, and opposing the taxation policies of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend.
Following his resignation in January 1768, Conway returned to the military, and in 1772 was made a full general and Governor of Jersey. He remained an important figure in the Commons, opposing the British attempt to suppress the American Revolt, and his motion in March 1782 was partly responsible for the fall of the North government. He was rewarded with a cabinet position and the office of Commander-in-Chief in the new Rockingham ministry, but left the government a year later with the establishment of the Fox-North Coalition. His political career came to an end in 1784 when he lost his seat in parliament due to his opposition to the new government of William Pitt.
BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM HOARE R.A
William Hoare was born near Eye, Suffolk, and received a gentleman’s education in Faringdon. He showed a marked aptitude for drawing and was sent to London to study under Giuseppe Grisoni, who had left Florence for London in 1715. When Grisoni returned to Italy in 1728, Hoare went with him, traveling to Rome and continuing his studies under the direction of Francesco Imperiali. He remained in Rome for nine years, returning to London in 1737/8.
Failing to establish himself in London, Hoare settled in Bath, an expanding spa town popular with the wealthier classes. He obtained numerous commissions, the most important being for official portraits of social leaders of the day (including George Frideric Handel) and political men (e.g. Prime Ministers Robert Walpole and William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, c.1754). There are several versions of most of these, suggesting that he had a studio, and they were further publicised by the production of mezzotints by leading engravers of the day. Hoare himself was a delicate etcher and published a number of private plates, mostly of family and friends, including Miss Hoare (probably Mary), Christopher Anstey and the 3rd Duke of Beaufort. His pastels were influenced by Rosalba Carriera.
William Hoare was the first fashionable portraitist to settle in Bath, and he remained as the leading portraitist there until the arrival of Thomas Gainsborough in 1759. He remained the favourite of his powerful patron the Duke of Newcastle and his family, followers and political associates. Included amongst his other important patrons were the Earls of Pembroke and Chesterfield, and the Duke of Beaufort. With Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds he was a founding member of the Royal Academy.
Hoare was closely involved with the running of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital in Bath from 1742, and served there as Governor for a time. Chalmers described him as 'an ingenious and amiable English painter'. His son, Prince Hoare, achieved fame as a painter and dramatist.