HENRY PIERCE BONE (BRITISH, 1779-1855)

in a rectangular gilt-metal mount within velvet-lined box frame

Provenance

The artist Henry Pierce Bone;

By descent to his son George Bone;

By descent to his daughters Georgina, aka Gina and Alice Bone;

Gifted to Richard Henry Egerton Russell by his Aunt and Godmother Phyllis Rosalind Leigh Hunt;

Thence by family descent

Footnote

The sitter was a Cornishman, born in Truro in 1775. As a teenager he went to Plymouth to paint on china at the Cookworthy factory and later went on to paint watch cases, shirt buttons, brooches and pins for Messers Randle, Jackson and White in Paternoster Row, London. In 1781 he exhibited an enamel portrait of his wife at the Royal Academy and, two years later, a self-portrait. He continued to work for London jewellers and painted during his spare time, working mainly on his Royal Academy diploma piece ‘Nymph and Cupid’ which caught the eye of the Prince of Wales. By 1801, his success as an enamel painter was made official with his appointment to Enamel Painter to the Prince of Wales, and to George III. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1811.  

Henry Pierce Bone was the eldest son and pupil of the enamel painter Henry Bone, R.A. (1755-1834) and his wife Eliabeth, née Van der Meulen (d. c. 1830). After some initial training in the art of painting in oil and enamels by his father, he entered the Royal Academy School at the age of sixteen. After his father’s death in 1834, he concentrated on oil painting and the production of enamels and he began to produce copies of works by Old Masters and of portraits of the Spencer family, some of which were painted ad vivum. He followed in his father’s footsteps as enamel painter to Queen Adelaide, to Victoria, Duchess of Kent, and to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, however he was never admitted to the Royal Academy. On 14 October 1805 he married Anna Maria Long, the daughter of a Clerkenwell watchmaker. They had four sons and three daughters. Henry Pierce Bone died on 21 October 1855 and the following year 172 of his enamels were sold at Christie’s.

Condition report
Two faint horizontal scratches upper left and another scratch lower left (please see additional photos online).

Possible bloom, or uneven varnish or surface dirt resulting in dull pale grey spots visible in various places, mostly to upper area above head, left and right background and lower jacket area.

The present work will be on view at Cromwell Place, SW7 2JE, 21 & 22 March, 11am-5pm