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Fabre and Lord Holland

Born in November 1773, Henry Richard Fox acceded to the title of Lord Holland upon the death of his father in 1774. When his mother’s death left him an orphan at the age of five, Holland’s intellectual development was entrusted almost entirely to his uncle, Charles James Fox, the de facto leader of the Whig party in British politics. By the time his nephew reached young adulthood, Fox’s prominence in the party had rendered the family name almost synonymous with the title of Whig. [1] Thus, despite Holland’s aversion to public speaking and his preference for private rather than public settings, family tradition and his uncle’s reputation demanded that he pursue a career in politics. [2] English aristocratic conventions of the late-eighteenth century dictated that young men pursue a cosmopolitan social and cultural education alongside traditional academic pursuits, and after two years at Christ Church College in Oxford, Lord Holland launched his Grand Tour of Europe in 1791. He remained abroad for five years, visiting France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Denmark before returning to England in 1796. Holland’s travels in this period would prove to be a formative influence on his later career as a politician and eminent social host, and his reputation was largely founded upon the extensive knowledge of foreign affairs and European politics that he accumulated in his frequent visits to the continent.

Shortly after his arrival in Florence in 1794, Henry met the young Elizabeth Vassall, nominally in the company of her estranged husband, Sir Godfrey Webster. Like Lord Holland, Lady Webster’s first voyage to Europe inspired a lifelong enthusiasm for travel. Her diary entries during this period are filled with lively and thoughtful observances of life on the continent, demonstrating a cosmopolitan perspective and a genuine interest in foreign cultures that nearly matched Lord Holland’s in intensity. Following a rather messy divorce from her husband, Elizabeth Vassall married Lord Holland in July 1797. [3] Although the scandal of Elizabeth’s divorce rendered the couple unwelcome in certain social circles for a time, their home in Kensington would soon become the undisputed center of the Whigs’ social, cultural, and political universe. Holland House exemplified the close relationship between social influence and political power that characterized British politics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Both Lord and Lady Holland viewed social life as a means of exercising power, and their travels on the continent doubtless influenced their belief that a successful salon was an effective a political weapon. Holland House provided a crucial forum for the brokerage of political power and patronage, and it was not uncommon for Lord Holland to entertain foreign ambassadors, host occasional cabinet meetings, or lobby his dinner guests for votes. [4] The famed Holland House dinners also regularly featured guests of artistic and literary distinction, and the couple often attempted to establish or further the careers of talented young artists and writers through their patronage and considerable social (Fig. 1).

FIGURE 1 Henry Fuseli, Swiss, 1741-1825 (painter); Robert Thew, British, 1758-1802 (engraver): Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act I, Scene iv, 1796, engraving, 50.0 x 63.5 cm. (19-5/8 x 25 in.). Early accession, source unknown, 58.16.1

Part of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, this print shows many of the trademarks of Fuseli’s style that were adopted by the anonymous creator of the Ackland painting. Hamlet’s violent contortion as he strives to approach the ghost of his father, and the ghost’s curious gesture, pointing across his body rather than using his other hand, are both found in the image of Satan in the Ackland painting.

In his artistic tastes as in other aspects of his intellectual development, Lord Holland adhered, for the most part, to the predilections of his uncle, Charles James Fox. Fox maintained a vigorous correspondence with his nephew while the latter was abroad between 1791 and 1796, in which they discussed and debated the artistic highlights of Holland’s Grand Tour. Both men displayed preferences that were exemplary of late-eighteenth-century tastes – the Apollo Belvedere of antiquity, Raphael, Titian, the Bolognese Classicism of the Carracci and their followers, and the Baroque style of Domenichino, Guercino, and Guido Reni. [5] The Whigs’ general inclination towards Classicism and Neoclassicism in literature, art, and architecture was fully consistent with their anti-despotic, yet firmly aristocratic, political principles. As the self-appointed defenders of political liberties against the predatory impulses of executive authority in England, the Whigs favored the idealized political legacy of Greek and Roman antiquity, in which heroes such as Brutus were lauded for guarding representative government against the depredations of tyrants. They detested the Gothic style for its association with the autocratic nature of medieval kingship and religious superstition. Romanticism, with its elevation of sentiment over rationality and sympathy for the lower classes, was likewise antithetical to Whig principles, which subscribed to the Enlightenment cult of Reason and viewed radical democracy as no less of a threat than monarchical tyranny. [6] The Whigs’ well-known sympathies for the French Revolution further cemented the connection between their anti-despotic politics and their preferences for Neoclassicism, a movement which the French Revolutionaries had enthusiastically endorsed and adapted for political ends.

FIGURE 2 François Xavier Fabre, French, 1766-1837 (painter); Paolo Toschi, Italian, 1788-1854 and Antonio Isac, Italian, died 1835 (engravers): Vittorio Alfieri, engraving, 28.9 x 22.2 cm. (11-3/8 x 8-1/4 in.) Ackland Art Museum, Burton Emmett Collection, 58.1.2830

Thus, when Holland was introduced to François-Xavier Fabre at Florence in the mid-1790s, he was well-prepared to appreciate the merits of this French Neoclassical painter. Born at Montpellier on April 1, 1766, Fabre began his artistic training as a young boy under the direction of Jean Coustou. After moving to Paris, he studied briefly with Joseph-Marie Vien before entering the studio of the undisputed master of French Neoclassical painting, Jacques-Louis David. His talents earned him a place at the French Academy in Rome, and in 1787, he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome for Nebuchadnezzar Slaying the Sons of Zedekiah. Fabre did not support the republican objectives of the French Revolution, and while many of his fellow French students left the Academy and returned to France after 1789, he chose to remain in Italy and headed to Florence in 1793. [7] Although he began his career as a history painter, Fabre’s true talents lay in portraiture, and he produced dozens of paintings of some of the most famous personages of his day, including Vittorio Alfieri, Antonio Canova, and Lucien Bonaparte. His work exemplified the ideals of his mentor, David, who defined Neoclassicism as the “true style,” for “we seek to imitate the ancient artists, in the genius of their conceptions, the purity of their design, the expressiveness of their features, and the grace of their forms.” [8] Unlike many of David’s pupils, who began to experiment with Romantic aesthetics in the early decades of the nineteenth century, Fabre remained faithful to Neoclassical conventions throughout his career. His sojourn in Florence in the 1790’s, where he became a leading figure of the artistic community, was perhaps the most prolific period of his career.

FIGURE 3 François-Xavier Fabre, French, 1766 - 1837: Henry Richard Vassall Fox, Lord Holland, 1795, oil on canvas, 105.4 x 85.2 cm. (41-1/2 x 33-9/16 in.). Ackland Fund, 87.21

In choosing to remain in Italy rather than return to France, Fabre had contributed, perhaps unwittingly, to his own renown as a portrait painter. During the 1790’s, portraiture fell from favor in France as a consequence of the Revolution, whose adherents deemed it incompatible with republican virtues of equality and simplicity. Aristocratic patrons, moreover, largely disappeared, as large numbers of the French nobility emigrated in the years following 1789. [9] In Florence, however, Fabre remained largely immune to the vicissitudes of French aesthetics in the Revolutionary period. He cultivated a close friendship with the celebrated Italian poet Vittorio Alfieri (Fig. 2) and his companion, Louise de Stolberg, the countess of Albany, whose salon was the center of Florentine social life for many years. [10] Fabre’s contacts in these elite social circles ensured a steady stream of portrait commissions from itinerant European aristocrats, and he became a particular favorite of English travelers. It was most likely through the countess of Albany that Fabre was introduced to the young Lord Holland and his future wife, Elizabeth Vassall, who were frequent guests at her salon. Fabre’s talents immediately found favor with Holland, who commissioned several portraits, as well as two history paintings, from the artist. Given Fabre’s reputation within Florentine social circles and among English travelers in particular, it is not surprising that Holland chose to patronize this celebrated pupil of David. But it was more than a matter of accidental circumstance or artistic fashions. The Whigs’ cultural proclivities, particularly within the Fox family, paralleled their political sympathies, and their tastes in dress, manners, and cultural pursuits were largely dictated by their pronounced Francophilia. Lord Holland’s interest in François-Xavier Fabre, moreover, reflected the close intersection of aesthetic and political concerns that characterized the Neoclassical movement of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.

Fabre completed his first portrait of Lord Holland at Florence in 1795. There are three extant versions of this painting, one of which hangs in the Ackland Art Museum (Fig. 3); another is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, while the third was most recently known to be offered at auction by Christie’s in December 1996. [11] Aristocrats such as Lord Holland were especially inclined to patronize portrait artists, in part because of the particular role that portraits played in English aristocratic culture. Portraits assumed the function of visually representing the stability and continuity of an aristocratic family’s heritage, and were often commissioned to commemorate the defining moments of aristocratic life, such as an heir’s coming of age or taking the Grand Tour. [12] They were both public and private in nature, and were intended to convey not only the subject’s physical likeness but his or her character as well. [13] In this portrait, Holland is seen seated, with arms folded, at three-quarters length, against a bare wall that is marbled with greenish bronze and yellow. Both the Directoire-style chair, inspired by classical antecedents, and the discreet yet detailed architectural background gesture towards Holland’s admiration for an antique Italianate style that dominated European tastes during the Neoclassical period. The antique cameo ring he wears on his left hand, possibly a reference to his intentions towards his future wife Elizabeth, is a further indication of Holland’s classical tastes. [14]

In portrait painting throughout much of the eighteenth century, individual tastes were usually subordinated to widely-held conventions in costume. [15] Dress was instrumental in signifying the sitter’s membership in a given professional, occupational, or social class. In the case of Lord Holland, costume was also determined by political loyalties, marked by a series of coded references that would have been easily recognizable to his contemporaries. There was a movement away from formality and ostentation in men’s dress in the second half of the eighteenth century that corresponded to revolutionary rumblings in the political world associated with the idea of liberty, whereby demands for political freedoms were matched by similar demands for freedom from constraint and decadence in dress. Many men in elite political and social circles chose to signal their sympathies for the American and French Revolutions by adopting a more careless attitude to their dress and neglecting all but the essential formalities. [16]

As a Whig whose entire political program rested on the principle of curtailing the arbitrary exercise of executive power, and whose sympathies for the French Revolution were well-known among his contemporaries, Lord Holland would most certainly have approved of this trend in fashions. Holland’s costume in this portrait conforms to the fashionable “masculine silhouette of 1790,” inspired by classical dress and characterized by a cut-away coat, waist-length waistcoat, and tight-fitting sleeves. [17] The entire costume is markedly inconspicuous; his dark blue frock coat is made of plain and unembroidered material, ornamented only by what appear to be brass or steel buttons. In England during the 1790’s, moreover, political opinions determined even the color of one’s clothing. Tory supporters of William Pitt were known for wearing scarlet waistcoats with gold buttons and black silk breeches, while Whig supporters of Fox, by contrast, wore yellow waistcoats and breeches and often carried large muffs of red fox fur. [18] The yellow waistcoat that Holland wears in this portrait was thus a highly visible symbol of his ultimate loyalties both to his uncle and to the Whig party in general.

FIGURE 3 François-Xavier Fabre, French, 1766 - 1837: Henry Richard Vassall Fox, Lord Holland (detail), 1795, oil on canvas, 105.4 x 85.2 cm. (41-1/2 x 33-9/16 in.). Ackland Fund, 87.21

Hairstyles were often significant indications of both social status and political loyalties as well, and Lord Holland’s coiffure in this painting is indicative of a joint effort between artist and sitter to construct a particular image of the subject as a staunch Whig. Although his “Brutus crop” is fully consistent with English fashion of the period, a painting by Gauffier, Portrait of Lord Holland Seated with a Small Dog, completed the very same year shows Holland wearing, if not a wig, a powdered hairstyle that suggested a more traditional style. There is evidence, moreover, that Fabre made significant changes to Holland’s coiffure before sending the completed work to his client. An examination of the portrait hanging in the Ackland Art Museum using ultraviolet light indicates that Fabre initially painted his subject with much longer hair. [19] Even under ordinary light the alterations to the painting’s background around the sitter’s head are clearly evident (Fig. 4). The version that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London shows similar evidence of changes to the background immediately around the sitter’s head, and Holland’s hair in the third version is notably longer and more disheveled. [20] A preliminary drawing completed by the artist for a second portrait of Holland in 1796 also shows the sitter with long, dark hair, but in the completed version of this painting, Holland is seen with the same cropped hairstyle as in the 1795 portrait. [21] It appears, then, that the artist and sitter made a deliberate decision to alter the style of Holland’s hair before these works were completed.

Lord Holland certainly had good reason to eschew the wig or powdered hairstyle in favor of the Brutus crop in the 1790’s.The wig had been an essential element of men’s appearance since the middle of the seventeenth century, and it remained very much en vogue until the 1790’s, when young English men, copying French fashions, introduced the trend towards natural hair. [22] As wigs and powdered hairstyles became increasingly associated with traditional or conservative values, natural hairstyles were equated with revolutionary political tendencies. During the Gordon Riots in London of 1780, for example, a mob attacked members of the House of Lords with the express intention to “diswig” them. [23] In 1795, these connotations became even more pronounced due to a political fracas that had a very immediate relevance for Lord Holland and his uncle. That year, Pitt proposed a tax of one guinea per year on individuals using hair-powder as a means of generating revenue. Tories continued to wear powdered wigs and preferred to pay the tax as a patriotic gesture, earning themselves the sobriquet of “guinea pigs,” while Whigs demonstrated both their opposition to the government and their support for the French Revolution by wearing their hair short, “à la guillotine.” [24]

The portrait of Lord Holland, now at the Ackland, captures the essence of both Whig politics and the Neoclassical movement of the late-eighteenth century, in which the confluence of artistic and political concerns took place within a distinctly international context. Lord Holland’s patronage of Fabre, occasioned first and foremost by his cosmopolitan posture as an aristocrat on the Grand Tour, was influenced by the Whigs’ marked Francophilia in both cultural tastes and political sympathies. In their commitment to the defense of liberty against the despotic exercise of political power, the Whigs preferred the Neoclassical style as the form of artistic and literary expression that best suited their principles. Despite his own antipathy towards the French Revolution, Fabre was a faithful representative of this artistic style. Exploiting the political dimensions of costume and coiffure in the 1790’s, Fabre and Lord Holland used the collaborative nature of portrait painting in the eighteenth century to produce a deliberately-fashioned likeness of Lord Holland as the legitimate heir to the Foxite Whig tradition.