Nicholas Dixon
Henry Blount (1602-82), wearing black robes with black silk cloak, white lawn collar, his hair worn long, c. 1661
Watercolour on vellum
Oval, 2 ¾ in. (69 mm) high
Signed in gold with initials ‘ND’
Philip Mould & Co.
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com This portrait of the traveller (and the man credited with introducing coffee to England) Sir Henry Blount has a near...
To view all current artworks for sale visit philipmould.com
This portrait of the traveller (and the man credited with introducing coffee to England) Sir Henry Blount has a near identical companion now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (its frame incorrectly stating the sitter’s identity as William Russell, first Duke of Bedford).[1] Blount’s identity can also be secured from comparison with a later portrait of him in plumbago by David Loggan, dated 1679.[2] He also appears to have been painted in 1658 by Richard Gibson, who held a brief tenure as court limner prior to Dixon’s appointment.[3]An oil portrait of Blount by Sir Peter Lely is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[4]
Born in Hertfordshire in 1602 to Sir Thomas Blount (1556–1639) and Frances Pigot (c.1564–1619), Blount’s career began when he was granted a pass to travel to Spain, France, and Italy, following his graduation from Trinity College, Oxford in 1618. This experience would later form the preface of his seminal text, A Voyage into the Levant, published in 1636, which, as the name suggests, served as an account of his travels in the aforementioned region.
On 7 May 1634, Blount commenced his great journey from Venice, voyaging along the Adriatic coast and then inland through the Balkans to Constantinople, round to Alexandria and finishing back in Italy. He travelled a total of 6000 miles in eleven months. Blount announced that the impetus for his journey was a desire for non-western pedagogy: he wished to study cultures in the Middle East through a pragmatic, rather than a solely religious lens, as was accustomed by British historians. Indeed, Blount grew to greatly admire Turkish society, referring to the populous as “the only moderne people”. In his Voyage to the Levant, which was published in eight editions in English between 1636 and 1671, he celebrates the social structure of Turkey, as well as its military and trade, acknowledging the diversity of religious peoples that coexisted so harmoniously.
The book was well-received and widely praised, and shortly after its publication Blount was knighted under Charles I on 21st March 1639. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he sided with the royalists, remaining loyal to the king. He fought in the Battle of Edgehill and resided with the king in Oxford. In 1647 he married Hester Wase (c.1620-1678), daughter of Christopher Wase of Upper Holloway, Middlesex, and widow of Sir William Mainwaring of Chester. However, he continued his hedonistic sexual pursuits, reportedly stating “it is cheaper and safer to lye with common wenches than with ladies of quality”. [5]
According to Judge Rumsey, it was Blount’s travels and writing that were responsible for the popularisation of coffee in England, as he wrote “your discovery in your excellent Book of Travels, hath brought the use of the Turkes Physick, of Cophie in great request in England”. Indeed, Blount famously only drank water until his grand voyage, and upon his return, drank the beverage constantly at a variety of coffee houses in London. He condemned the consumption of alcohol, believing that this was a source of corruption for society’s youth (whilst universities he cited as the locations for such corruption).
Upon the restoration of the monarchy, Blount remained in favour, despite having changed sides in 1652, and in 1661 was appointed sheriff of Hertfordshire. He resided in Tittenhanger, his birthplace, and spent his time acquiring a significant library and writing. It is likely that Dixon painted him during this period, shortly after the Restoration but prior to Dixon’s appointment as court artist and Keeper of the King’s Picture Closet in 1673.
Clearly a man of culture, this portrait joins the handful of aforementioned portraits of Blount and is indicative of his close connections to the court.
[1]Accession Number: 24.80.513. The identical framing of the portrait miniature in the Met and the present work suggest a connection between the two portraits as late as the 19thcentury, when they may have become separated and dispersed to different branches of the Blount family.
[2]David Loggan (1634–1692), portrait of Sir Henry Blount, signed and dated 1679, sold at Christie's, London, July 10, 1990, lot 9 (ill.). This plumbago portrait was published as an engraving the same year.
[3]A Life's Devotion: The Collection of the Late Mrs T.S. Eliot, Christie’s, 20 November 2013, lot 99.
[4]NPG 5491.
[5]Quoted in Henry Neville’s anonymous 1647pamphlet entitled The Parliament of Ladies.
This portrait of the traveller (and the man credited with introducing coffee to England) Sir Henry Blount has a near identical companion now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (its frame incorrectly stating the sitter’s identity as William Russell, first Duke of Bedford).[1] Blount’s identity can also be secured from comparison with a later portrait of him in plumbago by David Loggan, dated 1679.[2] He also appears to have been painted in 1658 by Richard Gibson, who held a brief tenure as court limner prior to Dixon’s appointment.[3]An oil portrait of Blount by Sir Peter Lely is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.[4]
Born in Hertfordshire in 1602 to Sir Thomas Blount (1556–1639) and Frances Pigot (c.1564–1619), Blount’s career began when he was granted a pass to travel to Spain, France, and Italy, following his graduation from Trinity College, Oxford in 1618. This experience would later form the preface of his seminal text, A Voyage into the Levant, published in 1636, which, as the name suggests, served as an account of his travels in the aforementioned region.
On 7 May 1634, Blount commenced his great journey from Venice, voyaging along the Adriatic coast and then inland through the Balkans to Constantinople, round to Alexandria and finishing back in Italy. He travelled a total of 6000 miles in eleven months. Blount announced that the impetus for his journey was a desire for non-western pedagogy: he wished to study cultures in the Middle East through a pragmatic, rather than a solely religious lens, as was accustomed by British historians. Indeed, Blount grew to greatly admire Turkish society, referring to the populous as “the only moderne people”. In his Voyage to the Levant, which was published in eight editions in English between 1636 and 1671, he celebrates the social structure of Turkey, as well as its military and trade, acknowledging the diversity of religious peoples that coexisted so harmoniously.
The book was well-received and widely praised, and shortly after its publication Blount was knighted under Charles I on 21st March 1639. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he sided with the royalists, remaining loyal to the king. He fought in the Battle of Edgehill and resided with the king in Oxford. In 1647 he married Hester Wase (c.1620-1678), daughter of Christopher Wase of Upper Holloway, Middlesex, and widow of Sir William Mainwaring of Chester. However, he continued his hedonistic sexual pursuits, reportedly stating “it is cheaper and safer to lye with common wenches than with ladies of quality”. [5]
According to Judge Rumsey, it was Blount’s travels and writing that were responsible for the popularisation of coffee in England, as he wrote “your discovery in your excellent Book of Travels, hath brought the use of the Turkes Physick, of Cophie in great request in England”. Indeed, Blount famously only drank water until his grand voyage, and upon his return, drank the beverage constantly at a variety of coffee houses in London. He condemned the consumption of alcohol, believing that this was a source of corruption for society’s youth (whilst universities he cited as the locations for such corruption).
Upon the restoration of the monarchy, Blount remained in favour, despite having changed sides in 1652, and in 1661 was appointed sheriff of Hertfordshire. He resided in Tittenhanger, his birthplace, and spent his time acquiring a significant library and writing. It is likely that Dixon painted him during this period, shortly after the Restoration but prior to Dixon’s appointment as court artist and Keeper of the King’s Picture Closet in 1673.
Clearly a man of culture, this portrait joins the handful of aforementioned portraits of Blount and is indicative of his close connections to the court.
[1]Accession Number: 24.80.513. The identical framing of the portrait miniature in the Met and the present work suggest a connection between the two portraits as late as the 19thcentury, when they may have become separated and dispersed to different branches of the Blount family.
[2]David Loggan (1634–1692), portrait of Sir Henry Blount, signed and dated 1679, sold at Christie's, London, July 10, 1990, lot 9 (ill.). This plumbago portrait was published as an engraving the same year.
[3]A Life's Devotion: The Collection of the Late Mrs T.S. Eliot, Christie’s, 20 November 2013, lot 99.
[4]NPG 5491.
[5]Quoted in Henry Neville’s anonymous 1647pamphlet entitled The Parliament of Ladies.
Provenance
Collection of Earl Beauchamp, Madresfield Court, Madresfield, Worcs.;Collection of Greta S. Heckett, sold at Sotheby’s, London, April 24, 1978, lot 501 (ill.)
Exhibitions
Exposition de la miniature, Brussels, 1912, no. 44, pl. XI (lent by the Earl Beauchamp, Madresfield Court)Literature
G.C. Williamson, History of Portrait Miniatures, 1904, vol. I, pl. LIII, fig. 5 G;Reynolds, English Portrait Miniatures, 1988