George Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper (1738 – 22 December 1789) was an English peer who went on the Grand Tour as a young man, but actually emigrated. Despite becoming a member of parliament and later inheriting lands and the title of Earl Cowper in England, he remained in Italy. He amassed a valuable art collection and became a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He was a patron of the arts and science.

Biography

George Nassau Clavering-Cowper was the son of the 2nd Earl Cowper and the godson of George II.The poetical works of William Cowper
William Cowper, John Bruce, Volume 3, p.clxx. Retrieved May 2010 He was educated at Eton College. His education was planned to be completed with a Grand Tour. This rite of passage for British aristocrats required that they tour the continent in the company of a tutor. Clavering-Cowper was at the time known as Viscount Fordwich. Accompanied by his tutor, they travelled through France, the Netherlands, and Germany before Clavering-Cowper studied for two years in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Hugh Belsey Hugh Graham Belsey, MBE, (born May 1954) is a British art historian who is an authority on the art of Thomas Gainsborough. For 23 years he was the curator of Gainsborough's House in Sudbury. His most recent contribution to Gainsborough scholarsh ...

, 'Cowper, George Nassau Clavering, third Earl Cowper (1738–1789)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 26 April 2010
/ref> Unlike other Grand Tourers, Fordwich was independent of his parents as he had inherited a fortune from his maternal grandfather in 1754. The tourers arrived in Florence on 7 July 1759. Fordwich's father was expectant of his return; he arranged for him to be elected as the Member of Parliament for

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

in December 1759. However, Fordwich was establishing himself in Florentine society. By the following year his tutor, Jean Chastellain, asked for and was given permission to abandon his charge. The 2nd Earl gave Chastellain leave to return to his home town of Vevey.

Florence

He married the sixteen-year-old Hannah Anne Gore, daughter of Charles Gore, on 2 June 1775. Their betrothal was commemorated with a painting by Zoffany commissioned by Fordwich's new father-in-law.''Burke's Peerage''
Retrieved April 2010 In 1780, he bought the Villa Palmieri in Fiesole which overlooks Florence. They had three children; the first two would become the 4th and 5th Earl Cowper. Although George Nassau Cowper had left his family's seats and his father in England he was not without connections. He had ambitions to be the British representative in Florence and he tried to increase his favour with the King. He sent a small painting to the King and also sent further copies of Italian works to England. The job he wanted was held by Sir Horace Mann who despite not being as much in favour as Cowper, was still the British Resident in Florence.Hugh Belsey
"Mann, Sir Horatio, first baronet (bap. 1706, d. 1786)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2004; online ed., May 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2009 Cowper was successful in other ways. He was instrumental in having a monument erected on Machiavelli's tomb, in the

Church of Santa Croce The ( Italian for 'Basilica of the Holy Cross') is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo. T ...

. Cowper was able to get himself made a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. His title was ''Prince of Nassau d'Auverquerque'' (his mother had been born "Henrietta Nassau d'Auverquerque") and he was given permission by George III to adopt this title. Cowper only returned to England once, and this was only a brief visit after over thirty years' absence. His arrival was so remarkable that it was reported on by

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

. In a letter to Sir Horace Mann he recounts that he was astounded to see

an English Earl who is more proud of a Pinchbeck Principality and a paltry order from Württemberg than he was of being a peer of Great Britain when Great Britain ''was'' something.

Art collection

Johan Zoffany - Tribuna of the Uffizi - Google Art Project

Cowper's art collection absorbed a great deal of his time and money. Among his most notable possessions are two paintings by Raphael. The first is known as the ''

Small Cowper Madonna The ''Small Cowper Madonna'' is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, depicting Mary and Child, in a typical Italian countryside. It has been dated to around 1504–1505, the middle of the High Renaissance. Story It is not k ...

'' and the other is the ''

Niccolini-Cowper Madonna The ''Niccolini-Cowper Madonna,'' also known as the ''Large Cowper Madonna,'' is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael, depicting Mary and Child, against a blue sky. The painting The painting may have been the last of Raphae ...

''. The latter is particularly remarkable in that he can be seen evaluating the painting in another painting. ''Tribuna of the Uffizi'+ shows Cowper looking at the painting as it is offered by

Johann Zoffany Johan Joseph Zoffany (born Johannes Josephus Zaufallij; 13 March 1733 – 11 November 1810) was a German neoclassical painter who was active mainly in England, Italy and India. His works appear in many prominent British collections, includin ...

. Zoffany had purchased the painting from the Niccolini family in 1782 and sold it to Cowper in 1785."The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna, 1508"
, National Gallery, London. Retrieved May 2010 Zoffany was in Italy on a mission by the British royal family to paint the Tribuna. Zoffany lost his role as a court painter due to including figures in this commission. Reputedly Cowper was thought acceptable but the others were considered unnecessary."The Tribuna of the Uffizi"
The Royal Collection. Retrieved May 2010 Cowper used Zoffany's expertise to increase the value of his art collection in addition to giving him commissions. Zoffany painted Cowper and his fiancée separately as well as including both of them in the painting commissioned by his father-in-law, Charles Gore. Artists Cowper collected included Giuseppe Antonio Fabrini, the landscape artist Francesco Zuccarelli, Jakob Philipp Hackert, and Hugh Primrose Dean. After 1778, Cowper purchased Fra Bartolommeo's ''Holy Family'' in 1779 and he also supported Joseph Plura,

Innocenzo Spinazzi Innocenzo Spinazzi (1726–1798) was an Italian sculptor of the Rococo period active in Rome and Florence. Biography Born in Rome the son of a silversmith, he became the leading sculptor in Florence, where he died. He was trained by Giovanni Bat ...

Hugh Douglas Hamilton Hugh Douglas Hamilton ( – 10 February 1808) was an Irish people, Irish portrait-painter. He spent considerable periods in London and Rome before returning to Dublin in the early 1790s. Until the mid-1770s he worked mostly in pastel. His s ...

, and Jacob More.

Patron

Cowper's support was not limited to artists. His cousin William Cowper, a noted poet, received a generous annuity from him. Count Volta also received a complete laboratory from Cowper and they also had continued correspondenceThe Third Earl Cowper: an English patron of science in 18th century Florence and his correspondence with Alessandro Volta. Italian Stud. 16:1–34. Dragoni G.(1994) in Proceedings of the 11th International Scientific Instruments Symposium, Bologna 1991, Lord George Cowper's 18th century cabinet of physics, eds Dragoni G., McConnell A., Turner L’E.pp 191–199. as Cowper assisted Volta with translation for a paper presented to the Royal Society.

Death and legacy

Cowper died on 22 December 1789 at age 51 from dropsy. His body was returned to England and buried in Hertford. His title was taken by his eldest son, George Augustus. His second son, Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau, inherited that title in 1799 and held it for another 38 years, which denied the title to Cowper's last son, Edward Spencer.

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowper, George Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl 1738 births 1789 deaths People educated at Eton College Princes of the Holy Roman Empire Fellows of the Royal Society British MPs 1754–1761 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Earls Cowper George