Giles Hussey (1710–1788) was a painter from

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, England. His portraits are well regarded, but his theories on art never received the attention he craved. He believed that each note of music represented a colour. He created the first portrait of

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...

, the pretender to the British throne. Hussey has works in the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Life

Hussey was born in 1710 at

Marnhull Marnhull ( ) is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It lies in the Blackmore Vale, north of Sturminster Newton. The resort towns of Bournemouth and Weymouth are approximately south. Marnhull is sited on a l ...

in Dorset, the tenth of thirteen children of John and Mary Hussey. His parents sent him to receive a Catholic education in Douay and St Omer in France. On his return he was apprenticed to

Jonathan Richardson Jonathan Richardson (12 January 1667 – 28 May 1745), sometimes called "the Elder" to distinguish him from his son (Jonathan Richardson the Younger), was an English artist, collector of drawings and writer on art, working almost entirely as a ...

to learn the art of portraiture. He then went on to work with Francesco Riari and he assisted in painting bishops in

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, is a Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln. Constructio ...

under the Venetian artist Vincenzo Damini. Damini is credited with saving Hussey from a potentially fatal fall while completing the paintings within porches at the cathedral, and got his reward when the two of them set out for Italy with monies from Hussey's parents. After journeying through France in 1730, where substantial funds were spent, Damini abandoned Hussey in Bologna after taking his property. Hussey was lucky to be adopted by a former ambassador to London, Signor Ghislonzoni, who befriended the painter, who was in Bolgna until 1733, when he left for his original destination of Rome. YoungPretenderGilesHussey

In Rome he started to develop his own theories on art whilst working with

Ercole Lelli Ercole Lelli (14 September 1702 – 7 March 1766) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque, active mainly in Northern Italy, including his native city of Bologna, as well as Padua and Piacenza. Lelli was a pupil of the painter Giovanni Pietro ...

. His intention was to use his knowledge of mathematics to identify what made artistic beauty. He measured many ancient statues and claimed to have found a "Harmonic Scale" that was important to their beauty and construction. Hussey proposed that the musical notes could be aligned with the colours of the spectrum. Red was meant to indicate "A" whilst violet was meant to indicate A flat. Nash Court Marnhull

The illustration shows one of the portraits that Hussey made of the "Young Pretender",

, who was the embodiment of the Catholic cause in England. These portraits were accurate, but were considered to have suffered from Hussey's obsession with his theories. Hussey is credited with being the first British artist to create a portrait of Charles Edward Stuart. The first sitting is thought to have been in 1734 and a number of different versions were produced. The second sitting has been dated to 1737 and shows Charles as a knight in a black suit of armour owned by him. An oil painting of this sketch was reported, but its current location is not known. Hussey went back to England in 1737 to reveal his new theories on art, but they received little attention. To make ends meet he again took to portraiture and was able to include the

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...

Matthew Duane Matthew Duane (1707–1785) was an English Roman Catholic conveyancer and art patron. Of obscure family origins, by the 1730s Duane had established himself as a 'chamber counsel' and conveyancer in Newcastle and London. He married Dorothy Dawson ...

and the

Duke of Northumberland Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke ...

amongst his clientele in 1742. The Duke was said to have offered Hussey a room at his house and to also have been willing to fund a servant for him as long as Hussey directed his efforts at the Duke's interest. However Hussey is said to have refused the offer as he was not to be given a Catholic priest as well. Hussey created a third set of drawings of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" in 1742 although he is thought to have based this on a bust of the prince. Over the next twenty years, Hussey was disappointed to find that his artistic theories received very little attention, and in 1768 he gave up painting entirely. He took to gardening after he inherited the family's property at Marnhull, following the death of his elder brother. In 1787 Hussey's nephew, John Rowe of Beaston House in the parish of Broad Hempston, Devon, in whose house Hussey had been living for several years, changed his name to Hussey and inherited Hussey's wealth and property.Sheila O'Connell, 'Hussey, Giles (1710–1788)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 2 Nov 2009
/ref> Hussey was buried in June 1788 at Broad Hempston in Devon after dying while living away from the artistic community in Beaston House, in the parish of Broad Hempston, the home of his nephew John Rowe.Lysons At the end, Hussey's paintings and drawings commanded high prices. His spectacular detail became valued and drawings of the old and young pretender commanded high prices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hussey, Giles 1710 births 1788 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters Artists from Dorset 18th-century English male artists