Richard Samuel ( fl. 1770–1786) was an English portrait painter who won several prestigious medals in the 1770s in London. He is known for a small number of paintings including what came to be known as ''The Nine Living Muses of Great Britain'' of 1778 in which he painted the nine leading blue stocking women of his time.

Early life

The parents, childhood and artistic training of Richard Samuel are not known.L. H. Cust, 'Samuel, Richard (d. 1787)', rev. Tina Fiske, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 26 Feb 2010
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Career

Samuel came to notice when he twice won the prestigious award from the Society of Artists for the best historical drawing. He had entered the Royal Academy's schools in 1770. Later he was given money for creating an improvement in the techniques for applying mezzotint grounds, although strangely there are no surviving examples of Samuel's art that use this technique. His work consisted of

conversation piece A conversation piece refers to a group portrait in a domestic or landscape setting depicting persons chatting or otherwise socializing with each other. Several of these were chosen and exhibited at the exhibitions at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

between 1772 and 1779. In 1779 Samuel took a job as an assistant secretary at the Royal Academy (which he kept until his death).''Portraits in the Characters of the Muses in the Temple of Apollo''.
National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 3 March 2016. Samuel did a larger than usual portrait of

Robert Pollard Robert Ellsworth Pollard Jr. (born October 31, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices. In addition to his work with Guided by Voices, he continues to have a prol ...

, the engraver. This work was in the style of

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

and shows Pollard who was an idiosyncratic printseller who made a substantial living from his work.

Nine living muses

In 1777, Samuel produced a print showing the portraits of nine of the leading "blue stocking" women of his time shown as the nine Muses of the classical world. Samuel had chosen leading women from different areas of achievement in line with idea of the Nine Muses of mythology. His choice of poet was

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...

, and

Elizabeth Carter Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, linguist, and polymath. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu,Encyclopaedia BritannicRet ...

was the scholar. Angelica Kauffman was the only founding female member of the

; Elizabeth Griffith was a playwright;

Charlotte Lennox Charlotte Lennox, ''née'' Ramsay (c. 1729 – 4 January 1804), was a Scottish novelist, playwright, poet, translator, essayist, and magazine editor, who has primarily been remembered as the author of ''The Female Quixote'', and for her associ ...

was a writer whilst

Catharine Macaulay Catharine Macaulay (née Sawbridge, later Graham; 23 March 1731 – 22 June 1791), was an English Whig republican historian. Early life Catharine Macaulay was a daughter of John Sawbridge (1699–1762) and his wife Elizabeth Wanley (died 1733 ...

was a historian. The last three were

Elizabeth Montagu Elizabeth Montagu (née Robinson; 2 October 1718 – 25 August 1800) was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society. Her parents were both ...

, a leader of society,

Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at a s ...

, a religious writer and playwright, and the singer

Elizabeth Ann Sheridan Elizabeth Ann Sheridan ( Linley; September 1754 – 28 June 1792) was an 18th-century English singer who was known to have possessed great beauty. She was the subject of several paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, who was a family friend, Joshua ...

. In 1778, Samuel painted the women on a speculative basis without taking sittings in an attempt to advance his career as a portrait and history painter. The resulting work was exhibited at the exhibition in 1778 where it attracted little attention. The figures in the painting were so idealised, possibly because of the lack of sittings, that Elizabeth Carter complained that she couldn't identify herself or anyone else in the picture. Peltz, Lucy, "Living muses: Constructing and celebrating the professional woman in literature and the arts" in ''Brilliant women: 18th-century bluestockings''. (2008)

Elizabeth Eger Elizabeth Selina Eger (born 1971) is a reader in the Department of English at King's College London. She is a specialist in women's writing of the eighteenth century, the concept of luxury, and the lives of "Bluestocking" women. She initiated and c ...

and Lucy Peltz (eds.) New Haven:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

. pp. 60-62.

Final years

In 1786, the year that he died, Samuel published a short work that was titled ''On the utility of drawing and painting''. It has been supposed that as his work does not appear to have ever fully developed (or that he retired), he died at a young age.

Legacy

Samuel has only a limited number of works, but they are well placed. A few are at the National Portrait Gallery in London whilst others are at 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 ...

. His painting of the nine muses is used as emblematic of the emergence of

bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' is a term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800), the "Queen of the Blues", including Eliz ...

s in the eighteenth century. Samuels painting of the nine muses has been notably recreated by Derry Moore's 1996 photograph which is also in London's National Portrait Gallery. Moore's photograph includes a contemporary selection of notable British women including

Darcey Bussell Dame Darcey Andrea Bussell, (born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pemberton Crittle; 27 April 1969) is an English retired ballerina and a former judge on the BBC television dance contest '' Strictly Come Dancing''. Trained at the Arts Educational Sc ...

and

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. Westwood came to public notice when she m ...

."Modern Muses of Great Britain"
Derry Moore, 12th Earl of Drogheda, 1996

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Richard 1786 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters Year of birth unknown English portrait painters 18th-century English male artists