Annual Bulletin 8, 1984-1985

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Henry D. Thielcke: A recently Found
Portrait and some Reflections on
Thielcke's Links with the English School

by Ross Fox

Pages 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Notes

1 The first recognition of the identity and merit of this painting owes to the discerning connoisseurship of Jean-René Ostiguy, Research Curator of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada.

2 Gérard Morisset, "Le peintre américain Thielke au Bas-Canada," Le Canada (Montreal) 10 July 1935, p. 2; Gérard Morisset, Peintres et tableaux, II (Quebec City: Les Éditions du Chevalet, 1937), pp. 86, 99-109.

3 According to information in the Canada East Census of 1851, recorded 11 January 1852, Thielcke was to be sixty-four years of age at his next birthday. At the time of his birth, St. Jarnes's Palace was only the ceremonial (i.e., the "headquarters of court ceremonial") and not the actual residence of the British sovereign (see note 5). However, St. Jarnes's Palace served also to house numerous officials, attendants, and others in the domestic service of the king. Neville Williams, The Royal Residences of Great Britain (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1960), p. 149.

4 Daphne Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters, I (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1972), p. 546.

5 The exhibition lists of the Royal Academy record Thielcke's address from 1805 until1813 as the Queen's House. Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from Its Foundation in 1769 to 1904 (London: Henry Graves and Co. / George Bell and Sons, 1905-06), VII, pp. 356-57. Also, Thielcke's son Augustus Frederick was entered in the Canada East Census of 1851 (in January 1852) as born at Buckingham Palace thirty-two years earlier. But the same location is meant. The palace was called Buckingham House until the reign of George III, when it was acquired as a private family house for the royal family. It was assigned by Parliament to Queen Charlotte as a dower house and was known as the Queen's House from then until the accession of George IV, when it became his principal residence, and hence the King's House, Pimlico. With John Nash's rebuilding, which followed shortly thereafter, it came to be known as the New Palace in St. James's Park, and thereafter as Buckingham Palace. Williams, p. 211.

6 Diary of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont (1808-88) in the possession of Abbot Low Moffat. I thank Mr. Moffat for the following transcriptions. "Thursday, December 30, 1841: was introduced to Mr. H. D. Thielcke portrait painter and pupil of Sir Thomas Lawrence...Tuesday, January 4, 1842: Sat for my picture by Mr. Thielcke who was pupil to Sir Thomas Lawrence....' , (All references to Thielcke in this diary will be published at a future date.)

7 Graves, Royal Academy of Arts, VII, pp. 356-57. Algernon Graves, The British Institution 1806-1867: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from the Foundation of the Institution (1875; reprint ed., Bath: Kingsmead Reprints, 1969), p. 534. The Quebec Mercury, 8 September 1838, p. 3.

8 Freeman O'Donoghue, Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (London; British Museum, 1908-25), I, pp. 192, 409, 422, II, p. 666.

9 S. W. Reynolds did a more faithful rendering of the Edridge painting in an engraving published the following year, in 1819.

10 George Charles Williamson, Catalogue of a Collection of Miniatures, the Property of His Royal Highness Prince Ernest Augustus William Adolphus George Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, K. G., G. C. H. (London: privately printed at the Chiswick Press, 1914), p. 9, pls. vii, viiia; see also p. 10, pl. viii, for a miniature of Queen Charlotte by Thielcke dated 25 July 1817. The latter, limited to head only, reproduces exactly the head in Thielcke's engraving.

11 Graves, Royal Academy of Arts, VII, p. 357.

12 The Farington Diary, by Joseph Farington, R. A., 2d ed., ed. James Greig (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1922-23; New York; George H. Doran Company, 1924-28), I, p. 52.

13 John Croker, The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D. F. R. S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, 2d ed., ed. Louis J. Jennings, I (London: John Murray, 1885), p. 122.

14 Graves, Royal Academy of Arts, II, p. 27.

15 For instance, The Duchess of York's Spaniel of 1804, in Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 (London: Tate Gallery for the Yale Centre for British Art, 1978), pp. 224-25, no.241.

16 Egerton, pp. 223-26; Guy Paget, "Henry Barnard Chalon, 1771-1849," Apollo, XLVIII. July 1948, pp. 6-9.

17 Graves, British Institution, p. 129; Graves, Royal Academy of Arts, II, p. 192. See aLso "Craig, William Marshall," Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, VIII (Leipzig:
E. A. Seemann, 1913), pp. 50-51.

18 See John R. Porter (who gives the dates of Thielcke's life as 1787-1874). "Antoine Plamondon (1804-1895) et le tableau religieux: perception et valorisation de la copie et de la composition," Journal of Canadian Art History, VIII, 1, 1984, p. 17.

19 A rare Chicago portrait by Thielcke, signed and dated 1855, was auctioned by Sotheby's, London, 27 September 1978 (lot 53).

20 "The artist has chosen the moment when John the Baptist baptizes Jesus in the waters of the River Jordan. Not being connoisseurs, we can speak only of the general impression that this painting has made on us; it was most agreeable."

21 "It is in the interest of art that original paintings of some importance should not pass unnoticed. This is the first such work that Mr. Thielke has undertaken since arriving in this country"

22 See note 7.

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