John Snare (christened 31 July 1808 born c.1811, died 10 January 1884) was a bookseller and publisher from

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, England, whose life was dominated by the discovery at a country house auction in 1845 of a hitherto lost

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...

painting, which Snare identified as a young Charles Stuart. It was supposed that the portrait was painted in 1623 during Charles' eight-month visit to Spain where the future monarch failed in his attempt to secure the hand of the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Anna. A protracted court case in Scotland with trustees from the estate of the

Earl of Fife The Earl of Fife or Mormaer of Fife was the ruler of the province of Fife in medieval Scotland, which encompassed the modern counties of Fife and Kinross. Due to their royal ancestry, the earls of Fife were the highest ranking nobles in the re ...

arose over the ownership of the work and this eventually brought Snare to financial ruin. Following the trial, Snare emigrated to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. After Snare's death, the Velázquez passed to Snare's son, and went on display briefly in 1885 at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. The painting has not been seen again since. No images of the work survive, only Snare's written descriptions of the painting.Cumming, Laura, ''The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th-Century Bookseller's Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece'', (Scribner, New York, April 2016). In 2016, Snare's story was told by ''

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Fiction * ''Observer'' (novel), a 2023 science fiction novel by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress * ''Observer'' (video game), a cyberpunk horr ...

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

Laura Cumming Laura Cumming is a British journalist who is the art critic of ''The Observer'' newspaper, a position she has held since 1999. Before that she worked for ''The Guardian'', the ''New Statesman'' and the BBC. In addition to her career in journal ...

in her book, ''The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller's Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece'' (

Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his busines ...

)."How Velázquez gave me consolation in grief – and set me on the trail of a lost portrait"
Laura Cumming, ''The Observer'', 3 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.

Selected publications

*''The Post-Office Reading directory. Compiled ... by John Snare''. John Snare, Reading, 1842. *''Snare's map of the country ten miles round Reading, compiled ... under the superintendence of M. Dodd.'' Reading, 1846. (map) *''The history and pedigree of the portrait of Prince Charles (afterwards Charles I) painted by Velasquez in 1623''. 1847. *''A brief description of the portrait of Prince Charles, afterwards Charles the First, painted at Madrid, in 1623, by Velasquez: now exhibiting at No. 21, Old Bond Street, London.'' London, 1847.

References

1810s births 1884 deaths Year of birth uncertain English booksellers People from Reading, Berkshire English publishers (people) 19th-century English businesspeople {{England-business-bio-stub