Lot 886: FREIHERR JOHANN HEINRICH VON HURTER (1734-1799)

FREIHERR JOHANN HEINRICH VON HURTER (1734-1799) AFTER THOMAS HARDY (1757-1805) THE COMPOSER JAMES NARES (1715-1783) half length in powdered wig, white stock and plum coloured coat, enamel, oval, 11.5 x 9cm, signed with initials JH conjoined on the turquoise and white counter-enamel, contemporary silver gilt frame engraved on the hinged reverse JAMES NARES MUS. Doct. in engraved border James Nares was born in Stanwell, Middlesex and in 1756 was appointed Organist and Composer to the King. The following year he graduated Mus. Doc. at Cambridge and was appointed Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal, a post he held until 1780. One of the finest 18th c painters in enamel, the copyist and miniaturist Johann Heinrich Hurter was born in Schaffhausen and settled in London in 1777. He exhibited at the RA between 1779 and 1781. The presence of a number of his enamels in the Royal Collection lends credence to his reputedly having been appointed a Court Painter. Enamel miniatures by Hurter are rare and it is perhaps of note that the present, unusually large, example should be of a sitter so closely involved with the musical life of the Court. George Engleheart (1750/3-1829) also made at least one copy of the present portrait of Nares. It was sold, Bonham's Fine Portrait Miniatures, 21 November 2007 (lot 166, as a portrait of "A Gentleman").