Thomas Jenkins (painter)

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Thomas Jenkins with his niece Anna Maria.
Painter: Angelika Kauffmann , 1790


Thomas Jenkins (born December 21, 1722 in Sidbury , East Devon , England , † May 15, 1798 in Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) , England) was a British painter , art collector , antique dealer and banker in Rome .

Life

He was the son of William Jenkins and studied painting with the portrait painter Thomas Hudson (1701–1779) in London . In 1750 Jenkins came to Italy with the landscape painter Richard Wilson , stayed in Venice from 1750 to 1751 , also in Bologna and Florence, and finally settled in Rome in 1753, where he initially worked with Wilson, who also portrayed him in 1752 1755 lived as a painter still modestly in a house on the Piazza di Spagna .

In Rome he was a member of the Academy of English Professors of the Liberal Arts . He was also welcomed together with Gavin Hamilton on February 2, 1761 at the Accademia di San Luca as Accademici di merito . As a painter, however, he was quite unsuccessful. Instead, he quickly (from 1755) achieved success as an archaeologist and art dealer.

With the support of an extensive network of middlemen, he became one of the most successful, albeit quite unscrupulous, antiques and painting dealers in Rome, who also sometimes worked for fake antiques or often in disregard of existing laws. He sold u. a. Antiquities from the collection of Sixtus V from his Roman villa Montalto Negroni as well as Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Neptune and Triton , on display today in the Victoria and Albert Museum . He worked u. a. also worked with his British painter and archaeologist Gavin Hamilton and, as an antiques dealer, was also his great competitor.

As one of the most successful dealers with excellent customer contacts - he temporarily dominated the Roman art market - he lived in Castel Gandolfo in the Villa Torlonia, where he owned a collection of antiquities, mainly cameos and statues , and in Rome in Casa Celli, Corso No. 504, where his house was a social and business hub for artists and nobles on their Grand Tour ; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived here diagonally across the street . Jenkins maintained good contacts with Pope Clement XIV - he was officially the English consul at the papal court , but without using the title - and belonged to the closest circle around Cardinal Alessandro Albani , who later became Pope Pius VI. and the German archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann . His circle of friends also included the painter and art dealer Johann Friedrich Reiffenstein , Christopher Hewetson and Anton Raphael Mengs . Jenkins was one of the most influential and wealthy acquaintances of the young painter Angelika Kauffmann , who also portrayed him with his niece.

With the beginning of the French occupation in 1797 as a result of the Napoleonic Italian campaign , his entire property was confiscated, which is why Jenkins returned to England. He died there just a few months later.

Publications

  • Catalogo di monumenti scritti del museo del Signor Tommaso Jenkins , 1787

literature

  • Thomas Ashby : Thomas Jenkins in Rome, Papers of the British School at Rome , London 1913
  • S. Rowland Pierce: Thomas Jenkins in Rome , in: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 45, 1965
  • B. Ford: Thomas Jenkins. Banker, Dealer and Unofficial British Agent , Apollo Verlag, London 1974

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anton Willem Adriaan Boschloo (ed.): Academies of art between Renaissance and romanticism , suffering art history jaarboek, Vol 5-6, Stichting suffering art history Jaarboek, 1989, ISBN 9012058996 and ISBN 9789012058995
  2. ↑ Steffi Roettgen: Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779 , Volume 1, Verlag Hirmer, 2003, ISBN 3777479004 or ISBN 9783777479002 , page 491
  3. ↑ Research and Reports , Volumes 17-18, National Museums in Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1976, page 137 ( excerpt )
  4. ↑ Nina Simone Schep Frankowski: Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. Art agent and painting collector in Frederician Berlin , 2009, page 136 ( digitized version )
  5. ↑ Joachim Raeder: The statuary furnishings of the Villa Hadriana near Tivoli , Europäische Hochschulschriften, Verlag P. Lang, 1983, ISBN 3820475788 or ISBN 9783820475784 , page 21 ( digital copy )
  6. ^ Rolf Hermann Johannsen: Aloys Hirt. Archaeologist, historian, art connoisseur , Berliner Klassik, Volume 1, Verlag Wehrhahn, 2004, ISBN 3932324277 or ISBN 9783932324277 , page 344 ( excerpt )
  7. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Italian Journey , Volume 11, Page 378
  8. ^ Jacob Hess: Art History Studies on the Renaissance and Baroque , Volume 1, 1967, page 310 ( digitized version )
  9. ^ Bettina Baumgärtel, Brian Allen: Angelika Kauffmann , Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Verlag Hatje, 1998, page 308 ( excerpt )
personal data
SURNAME Jenkins, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jenkins, Tommaso
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter, art collector, antique dealer and banker
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1722
PLACE OF BIRTH Sidbury, East Devon , England
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1798
Place of death Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) , England