From 10 March to 4 June 2023 Derby Museum and Art Gallery hosted an exhibition Hogarth’s Britons. Succession, Patriotism and the Jacobite Rebellion. Dr Stuart Handley reports back on a rich exhibition detailing Derby’s connexion to a pivotal moment in 18th-century British history.
Derby has many claims to be a quintessential 18th-century town – at least when it comes to History. It claims the first factory in England – the Lombe Silk Mill, which now hosts the acclaimed Museum of Making, located near to what is now the Cathedral, with its family monuments to the Cavendish family and to the painter Joseph Wright (of Derby). Nearby is a modern statue of Charles Edward Stuart, erected at the expence of the late Lionel Pickering (at that time owner of Derby County FC) – and much approved of by the late Dr. Eveline Cruickshanks, doyen of Jacobite studies (and a long-serving contributor to the History of Parliament).
Derby (or, perhaps, Swarkestone) was the farthest point south reached by the Jacobite army of the Young Pretender (Charles Edward Stuart) in December 1745. This event is commemorated every year with a re-enactment of the skirmish that took place between red-coats and highlanders. The Museum and Art Gallery used to have a room re-creating the fatal council meeting when it was decided to retreat northwards. It is currently being transformed into a room dedicated to the ’45, while retaining the original oak panelling from Exeter House: the venue of the fateful meeting which led to the retreat from Derby.
The works of William Hogarth (1697-1764) shown in the exhibition, begin as early as 1724 with an engraving of “Masquerades and Operas (The Bad Taste of the Town)”. This critiques foreign entertainments and the associated neglect of classic English authors (including Shakespeare and Dryden), whose discarded works are carted about as waste paper. An early painting from c.1728 (usually to be found in Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery) depicts “A Scene from the Beggar’s Opera” by John Gay. Hogarth’s painting was much influenced by his father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill, MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis from 1722-1734, a ministerial supporter, and notable foe of Hogarth critics such as William Kent and Richard Boyle, 3rd earl of Burlington.
Satire is not surprisingly well represented – with an engraving from “A Rake’s Progress” showing “The Rake’s Levée. Other highlights include the six oil paintings depicting “Marriage A-la-Mode” and “The Humours of an Election,” engravings from 1755-8, shortly after the General Election of 1754, which had seen a vastly expensive contest for Oxfordshire.
There are many portraits from the ’45 and its aftermath: Flora MacDonald c.1749 by Allen Ramsay; an etching of Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, from 1746, when Hogarth intercepted the prisoner at St. Albans en route for London and his trial for high treason. There are also portraits of Charles Edward Stuart, in October 1745 by Ramsay; William Augustus, duke of Cumberland in 1732 by Hogarth; and Henry Benedict Stuart (the future cardinal), c.1732 by the studio of Antonio David. Also represented is Hogarth’s portrait from 1741 of William Cavendish, marquess of Hartington, the future 4th duke of Devonshire: a man with close Derby connexions.
Documents are also exhibited. There is a letter from Charles Edward to his father, the Old Pretender (James Edward Stuart) – originally sent to the Museum upon its opening in 1873 by Queen Victoria – which was written from Edinburgh on 22 Oct. 1745 (o.s.). The printed subscription list of 28 Sept. 1745, denouncing the rebellion and signed by 167 men, headed by William Cavendish, 3rd duke of Devonshire, his heir Hartington, and Hartington’s fellow knight of the shire for Derbyshire, Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 4th bt, and the mayor of Derby, Samuel Cooper.
Accompanying exhibits by Hogarth are a host of associated objects, such as fans depicting Charles Edward and the duke of Cumberland; a Jacobite garter; a Cumberland teapot; and a white cockade worn at Culloden.
The exhibition is rounded off by Hogarth’s notorious satirical portrait of John Wilkes, engraved in 1763. Fittingly, Wilkes died in 1797, 100 years after Hogarth’s birth. Coincidently, it was also the year Joseph Wright of Derby died (Wright’s father was born the same year as Hogarth, 1697; and his mother died the year of Hogarth’s death, 1764).
For those fortunate enough to live in Derby, the Museum hosts a large collection of the works of Joseph Wright. Apart from, that is, one of Wright’s most famous paintings, “The Orrery”, which for the duration of the exhibition has been loaned to the Foundling Museum in London, in return for Hogarth’s, “The March of the Guards to Finchley”.
For those unfortunate enough to have missed the exhibition, there is a catalogue compiled by Jacqueline Riding with contributions from Lucy Bamford.
SNH
