The Death of the Earl of Chatham

Location

Country: USA
City: Boston
Place: British Consulate-General

This engraving, after a painting by John Singleton Copley, shows an event which took place in the House of Lords on 7 April 1778. Following the Duke of Richmond’s speech against the British Government's attack on American colonies and in favour of American independence, former Prime Minister William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, rose to reply. In poor health and on crutches, Chatham made an impassioned speech before collapsing in a sudden fit. He died a month later at his home in Kent. Copley's painting of the scene, which is over two metres high and three metres wide, and includes some 55 portraits, is now in the Tate collection.

In 1781 Copley announced that the Italian engraver Francesco Bartolozzi would engrave the work for publication and a subscription was set up. The engraving appeared in 1791 but owing to damage to the plate only 2,500 impressions could be made (of which this is one). So Copley commissioned French engraver Jean Marie Delattre to make a second plate. The artist intended to circulate this print more widely at a lower price but was so disappointed with the quality of Delattre’s work that he refused to pay for it. A lawsuit followed, which Delattre won and his print was finally published in 1820.

John Singleton Copley was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Irish immigrants, who owned a tobacco shop. His father died when he was a young and his mother later married English artist and schoolteacher Peter Pelham. Pelham may have introduced Copley to Scottish émigré and artist John Smibert, whose studio he visited regularly. In 1766, Copley sent the painting ‘Boy with a Squirrel’ to the Society of Artists in London, where it was praised by Benjamin West. In 1769, he married Susannah Farnham, with whom he had five children. Encouraged by West, Copley relocated to London in 1774, living in Soho and later in Westminster. He had a moderately successful career in London, painting mainly history and portrait subjects. He died aged 77.
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Italy. He became a pupil of the German painter and printmaker Joseph Wagner, then based in Venice. In 1764, he was invited to England by Frederick Augusta Barnard, King George III's Librarian. Although best known for copying Old Master drawings in the stipple technique (such as his reproductions of Guercino’s drawings in the Royal Collection), Bartolozzi also engraved plates after contemporary artists (notably Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann). He set up a studio in London, which produced large numbers of ‘furniture prints’ (generally set within a roundel or oval and intended for framing). In 1802 he left England to become Director of the Lisbon Academy in Portugal.

People

William, 1st Earl of Chatham Pitt (1708 - 1778)

Places

England, London, House of Lords, Palace of Westminster, Westminster

Subjects

topography, male portrait, group portrait, 18th century costume, ceremonial costume, stockings, breeches, wig, shoe, coat of arms, death, Earl, government building, table (as Subject), public interior

Materials & Techniques

engraving

Artist

John Singleton Copley (1738 - 1815)
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 - 1815)

Title

The Death of the Earl of Chatham

Date

published 1 May 1791

Medium

Engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Colnaghi, April 1952

Provenance

Collection of Prince Loewenstein; Liechenstein Collection; with Colnaghi, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in April 1952

GAC number

1549