Portrait of Robert Clements, 1st Earl of Leitrim (1732-1804) - Batoni, Pompeo (Italian painter and draftsman, 1708-1787) (My University, 1999)
'The sitter, in this portrait, who was the son of Nathaniel Clements, Irish Deputy Vice-Tresurer and Teller of the Exchequer, was one of a group of Irish visitors to Rome in the 1740s adn 1750s who were Batoni's first Grand Tour patrons. Robert Clements was born in County Kildare, the son of Nathaniel Clements and his wife Hannah, daughter of William Gore, Dean of Down. His parents lived in considerable style. Robert Clements travelled to Italy in 1753 and is recorded as in Florence in July 1753 by Dr James Tyrell. According to Percival Wood Clement, author of 'Ancestors and Descendants of Robert Clements', Clements wrote a 'rather dull' Grand Tour journal in 1754. On his return to Ireland, Clements entered public life representing County Donegal in the Irish Parliament (1765-1768)and later Carrick (1768-1776)and Donegal again (1776-1783). Amongst other posts he held were High Sheriff of County Leitrim (1759), Commisioner of the Revenue (1772-1773) and Governor of County Leitrim (1777). In May 1765 he married Lady Elizabeth Skeffington, daughter of Clotworthy, 1st Earl of Massereene and they moved into Killadoon, a fine eighteenth century house at Celbridge in County Kildare. Clements was made Baron Leitrim of Manor Hamilton in 1783, one of nine Irish baronies created by the Fox Ministry, but in June 1784 was applying vigorously for further advancement. Clements eventually succeeded in his efforts, being created Viscount Leitrim in 1793 and Earl of Leitrim in 1795. The picture forms a part of a group of portraits of Irish visitors to Rome painted by Batoni in the 1740s and 1750s. The earliest was the portrait of Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown, painted in 1744 [see image cgjc0986], and it seems that Leeson introduced Batoni to other Irish sitters including Clements. The Clements portrait is of particular interest as it marks the artist's first use of an antique bust in the background. Later portraits by Batoni are often charaterized by the introduction of a classical bust to show the sitter's appreciation of the beauty of ancient art. The bust in this portrait is of Homer, the great Greek poet and author of the Illiad and the Odyssey. The image of Homer was one of the most celebrated portraits of antiquity and there are many replicas including a Roman example in the Capitoline Museum, but the finest extant example is in the Louvre. Batoni used the same bust in his portraits of Arthur Hill-Trevor (1764) and Thomas Estcourt (1772).' (Sotheby's, 13)
Keywords: Leitrim, Robert Clements, 1st Earl of, 1732-1804; Art, Irish; Portrait painting, Italian; Portraits, Irish; Clothing and dress Ireland History.; Grand tours (Education); Gentry Ireland History.; Homer Portraits.; Busts, Roman; Education in art; 18th century