Richard Phelps (1710–1785) was an 18th-century English portrait painter and designer. He painted portraits of gentry, a number of which are in the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
,
Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...
,
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
,
National Portrait Gallery, London, and other museums. The
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
has an album of 312 of his drawings. Phelps was also a landscape designer, who was hired by
Henry Fownes Luttrell to update the grounds of
Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...
.
Personal life
Richard Phelps was from
Porlock
Porlock is a coastal village in Somerset, England, west of Minehead. At the 2011 census, the village had a population of 1,440.
In 2017, Porlock had the highest percentage of elderly population in Britain, with over 40% being of pensionable ag ...
and married to a woman named Mary. She died on 30 May 1753 and he died 12 July 1785. The couple and other family members are on a brass in Porlock Church. He had land holdings in Porlock, not far from his friend
Coplestone Warre Bampfylde's estate,
Hestercombe House.
The Phelps family appeared in Porlock during
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
's reign (1558-1603), such as yeoman Robert Phelps who had been in Porlock since about 1602. A Richard Phelps painted the
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
for the
Luccombe Parish Church and the
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
for the Porlock Church in 1738.
Career
![Bampfylde Moore Carew by Richard Phelps](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Bampfylde_Moore_Carew_by_Richard_Phelps.jpg)
Phelps was a portrait painter. He studied under
Thomas Hudson and Sir
Joshua Reynolds. Phelps worked in Somerset painting portraits, restoring old master paintings, and working as an interior decorator. Correspondence by Richard Phelps is held at
Penn Libraries
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
of the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in the United States.
Artist
Richard Phelps is known for his painting of
Bampfylde Moore Carew
Bampfylde Moore Carew (1690-1758) was an English rogue, vagabond and impostor, who claimed to be King of the Beggars.
Life
Baptized at Bickleigh, Devon, on 23 September 1690, Bampfylde Moore Carew was the son of Reverend Theodore Carew, rect ...
, which was engraved by
Faber. He may have made the pastel work of
George Frideric Handel that was exhibited in Paris in 1911. Phelps exhibited in London at The Society of Artists. Phelps was described as a "provincial Highmore" by Sir
Ellis Waterhouse
Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (16 February 1905 – 7 September 1985) was an English art historian and museum director who specialised in Roman baroque and English painting. He was Director of the National Galleries of Scotland (1949–52) a ...
.
The
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
has an album of the bulk of his surviving work, which includes 312 drawings. The works include portraits of gentry, self-portraits, landscapes, genre paintings, religious studies, and grotesque figures. His drawings include George, Thomas, Mrs. Mary Carew, and Elizabeth Carew Bernard. He drew sketches of John, Thomas Popham, and Miss Popham. Some of the other people that he depicted include the Dyke Acland family members;
Charles Jennens; Margaret Luttrell (wife of
Alexander Luttrell); Rev. Henry Lockett;
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, KG (27 April 1564 – 5 November 1632) was an English nobleman. He was a grandee and one of the wealthiest peers of the court of Elizabeth I. Under James I, Northumberland was a long-term prisoner i ...
;
Prince Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir, and
Sir Charles Tynte, 5th Baronet
Sir Charles Kemys Tynte, 5th Baronet (19 May 1710 – 25 April 1785), of Halswell House, near Bridgwater, Somerset and Cefn Mably, Glamorganshire, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1745 and 1774.
Tynte was a yo ...
. Some of the drawings are made after the works of other artists, like
Rembrandt, Thomas Hudson, Joseph van Haecken. The album also included works by
Alessio de Marchis
Alessio de Marchis or ''il Marchis'' (Naples, 1684–1752, Perugia) was an Italian painter of the early 18th century, active mainly in Rome and Urbino, mainly as a landscape painter.
Alessio was born in Naples, and was known to be active in 1710 ...
and an 18th-century Bolognese artist. It previously held two works by
John Vanderbank
John Vanderbank (9 September 1694 – 23 December 1739)Waterhouse, Ellis. ''Painting in Britain 1530–1790'' (Penguin Books, 1957). was a leading English portrait painter who enjoyed a high reputation during the last decade of King George I ...
.
Dovery Manor Museum exhibited paintings by Richard Phelps in 2011.
Designer
![Margaret Luttrell (1726–1766), Mrs Henry Fownes Luttrell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Margaret_Luttrell_%281726%E2%80%931766%29%2C_Mrs_Henry_Fownes_Luttrell.jpg)
Phelps was hired by
Henry Fownes Luttrell to design Conygar Tower, landscaping, and bridges for
Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...
. Conygar Tower is a three-storey
folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.
Eighteenth-cent ...
built in 1775 on the top of a wooded hill overlooking the village of
Dunster
Dunster is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England, within the north-eastern boundary of Exmoor National Park. It lies on the Bristol Channel southeast of Minehead and northwest of Taunton. At the 2011 Unit ...
. It has two-stage buttresses between four pointed-arched openings on every level. He designed the 18th century Castle Mill Bridge over
River Avill, which connected Dunster Castle grounds with Deer Park. The stone bridge, with two pointed arches with rock-faced voussoirs, replaced a medieval mill bridge. It was made of local stone, brick capping, and pebbles and designed with a rustic, picturesque style. There are brick parapets on the north and south side of the bridge, with a brick seat. It was listed as an
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
Listed Building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
(264701) on 8 April 1983.
Collections
* The Burrell Collection,
Glasgow Museums & Art Galleries
** Elizabeth Prowse, c.1769, oil on canvas
*
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. The museum is situated in Clifton, about from the city centre. As part of Bristol Culture it is run by the Bristol City Council with no entrance fee. It holds ...
** Eleanor, Walter and Jane Burton, The Georgian House Museum
**
Thomas Goldney III, 1751
*
National Portrait Gallery, London
**
Bampfylde Moore Carew
Bampfylde Moore Carew (1690-1758) was an English rogue, vagabond and impostor, who claimed to be King of the Beggars.
Life
Baptized at Bickleigh, Devon, on 23 September 1690, Bampfylde Moore Carew was the son of Reverend Theodore Carew, rect ...
, 1750
*
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
,
Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a English country house, country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo- ...
** Margaret Trevelyan (1704–1764), Mrs
Alexander Luttrell, Later Mrs Edward Dyke
**
Margaret Luttrell (1726–1766), Mrs
Henry Fownes Luttrell, oil on canvas
** Margaret Luttrell (1726–1766), Mrs Henry Fownes Luttrell, oil on canvas
** Margaret Luttrell (1747–1792), Mrs John Henry Southcote, as a Child, oil on canvas
* National Trust,
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public. The National Trust displays the house as a comfortab ...
**
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1752–1794), 9th Baronet, as a Boy, c.1760, oil on canvas
* Somerset Museums Service
** Edward Ellis as a Child, oil on canvas
** Hannah Ellis, Mrs Joseph Metford (1722–1798), oil on canvas
** Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman, 1751
*
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
** Peregrine Palmer (1703/1704–1762), DCL, 1764, oil on canvas, Examination Schools
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phelps, Richard
1710 births
1785 deaths
18th-century English painters
English male painters
English landscape and garden designers
18th-century English male artists