Hamlet Winstanley (1698–1756) was an English

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, engraver and art agent. As a painter, he was mainly active as a portraitist and

copyist A copyist is a person who makes duplications of the same thing. The modern use of the term is mainly confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript. However, the ...

Life

Winstanley was born in

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, the second son of William Winstanley, a tradesman. In 1707 he was placed under the tuition of Samuel Shaw, rector of the parish and master of the Boteler free grammar school. John Finch, rector of Winwick and brother of the

Earl of Nottingham :''See also Earl of Winchilsea'' Earl of Nottingham is a title that has been created seven times in the Peerage of England. It was first created for John de Mowbray, 1st Earl of Nottingham, John de Mowbray in 1377, at the coronation of Richard ...

, gave him access to his collection of paintings so that he could study and copy them. Finch arranged for him to study in London at the ''Kneller Academy of Painting and Drawing'' founded in 1711 in Great Queen Street,

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is located in Holborn and is the List of city squares by size, largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a ...

. He remained at the academy for three years, receiving tuition from Sir Godfrey Kneller. Winstanley returned to Warrington in 1721 with a commission to paint the portrait of Sir Edward Stanley. Its success led to his introduction to

James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby (3 July 16641 February 1736), styled The Honourable until 1702, was a British peer, soldier and politician. He became Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard and served in the Scots Brigade, Anglo-Dutch Brigade. Ea ...

, and the earl ordered him to come and paint for him at his seat at

Knowsley Hall Knowsley Hall is a stately home near Liverpool in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. It is the ancestral home of the Stanley family, the Earls of Derby. The hall is surrounded by of parkland, which contains the Knowsley S ...

. During the next two years he painted landscapes and portraits, including one of the earl. At the earl's expense, he stayed in Rome from 1723 to 1725. The earl asked him to buy paintings and sculpture, through a certain 'Me. M', a Jacobite exile and collector. Winstanley was thus able to copy various paintings in Roman collections for Lord Derby. After returning to London, Winstanley continued to act as an agent for Lord Derby, bidding and buying on his behalf from auction houses and art dealers. He spent his later years at Warrington, where he built Stanley Street, and named it after his patrons at Knowsley. He died at Warrington on 18 May 1756. His collections of copper-plates and prints are stated by

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

to have been sold by auction at Essex House on 18 March 1762.

Works

As a painter, he was mainly active as a portraitist and copyist. Winstanley left sketches of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and studies of antique figures. The

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

purchased two examples of his pen and wash drawings in 1870. The Yale Centre for British Art holds a sketchbook containing 81 study drawings of body parts by Hamlet Winstanley. He executed large copies of the '' Three Graces'' by

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

, in the Farnesina Palace at Rome, and of the '' Triumph of Bacchus'' by Annibale Caracci, in the Farnese Palace. His etchings after pictures by old masters (including Ribera, Rembrandt,

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

, Carlo Dolci, Tintoretto, Titian, Rubens, Frans Snyders, and Salvator Rosa) in the possession of the Earl of Derby were bound together in a portfolio known as the ''Knowsley Gallery''. Hamlet Winstanley - A portrait of a young lady

Hamlet Winstanley - A portrait of a young lady

Winstanley executed portraits of the Stanleys, John Blackburne of Orford Hall, Samuel Peploe, and Jonathan Patten of Manchester. Several of his portraits were etched or engraved. He would often paint the head on a separate piece of canvas and then send it to the drapery painter Joseph Van Aken in London so it could be pasted onto the costumed figure to be painted by Van Aken. The portrait of the Earl of Derby was engraved by Gerard Van der Gucht and the portrait of Edward Waddington, painted in 1730, was engraved in

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzo ...

John Faber the Younger John Faber the Younger (1684 – 2 May 1756)Johan Faber II
at the RKD was a Dutch portrait engraver active in L ...

. Some of his landscape and other subjects were at

. Winstanley also made etchings of Sir James Thornhill's paintings in the dome of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. He also made a series of large etchings after old master paintings in the collection of the 19th Earl of Derby at Knowsley Hall in c.1728-9.''Hamlet Winstanley''
at the British Museum

References

;Attribution

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winstanley, Hamlet 1698 births 1756 deaths 18th-century English painters English portrait painters English landscape painters English male painters People educated at Boteler Grammar School Artists from Warrington English engravers English art dealers 18th-century English male artists