Hamlet Winstanley
Hamlet Winstanley (1698–1756) was an English painter, engraver and art agent. As a painter, he was mainly active as a portraitist and copyist.
Life
Winstanley was born in
Winstanley returned to Warrington in 1721 with a commission to paint the portrait of Sir Edward Stanley. Its success led to his introduction to James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, and the earl ordered him to come and paint for him at his seat at Knowsley Hall. During the next two years he painted landscapes and portraits, including one of the earl. At the earl's expense, he stayed in Rome from 1723 to 1725. The earl asked him to buy paintings and sculpture, through a certain 'Me. M', a Jacobite exile and collector. Winstanley was thus able to copy various paintings in Roman collections for Lord Derby. After returning to London, Winstanley continued to act as an agent for Lord Derby, bidding and buying on his behalf from auction houses and art dealers.
He spent his later years at Warrington, where he built Stanley Street, and named it after his patrons at Knowsley. He died at Warrington on 18 May 1756. His collections of copper-plates and prints are stated by Horace Walpole to have been sold by auction at Essex House on 18 March 1762.
Works
As a painter, he was mainly active as a portraitist and copyist. Winstanley left sketches of
Winstanley executed portraits of the Stanleys, John Blackburne of Orford Hall, Samuel Peploe, and Jonathan Patten of Manchester. Several of his portraits were etched or engraved. He would often paint the head on a separate piece of canvas and then send it to the drapery painter Joseph Van Aken in London so it could be pasted onto the costumed figure to be painted by Van Aken.[2] The portrait of the Earl of Derby was engraved by Gerard Van der Gucht and the portrait of Edward Waddington, painted in 1730, was engraved in mezzotint by John Faber the Younger. Some of his landscape and other subjects were at Knowsley Hall.
Winstanley also made etchings of
References
- ^ Sketchbook Containing 81 drawings and 2 Engraved Self-portraits at the Yale Centre for British Art
- ^ M. Kirby Talley Jr., 'Thomas Bardwell Of Bungay, Artist And Author 1704-1767'. The Volume of the Walpole Society Vol. 46 (1976-1978), pp. 91-163
- ^ Hamlet Winstanley at the British Museum
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Winstanley, Hamlet". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
External links
- Media related to Hamlet Winstanley at Wikimedia Commons