Lot 133: Robert Fagan

Robert Fagan
1761-1816
portrait of a lady
three-quarter length, seated, wearing a white dress with red robes
oil on canvas, in a carved wood frame
92 by 73 cm., 36 1/4 by 28 3/4 in.
This beautiful portrait dates from the late 1790s during Fagan's thirty year stay in Italy. Born into a family originally from Cork, Fagan was brought up in London where his father was a baker. In 1781 he was admitted to the Royal Academy where he apparently studied with Bartolozzi, and late that year he briefly visited Rome with his fellow student, Grignion. He returned to Italy in 1784, settling in Rome on 6th March. He soon established himself as a fashionable painter of members of the aristocracy who visited Italy. His list of sitters included Lady Clifford, Lady Clarendon, Lady Mainwaring, Lady Malden and Elizabeth, Lady Webster, later Lady Holland, whose portrait apparently stood at the foot of the sickbed of the celebrated Lord Bristol, Bishop of Derry. Many of these portraits remain untraced. In 1790 he married his first wife, the young and beautiful Anne Maria Ferri (whose portrait by Fagan was sold in these rooms on 10th April 1991, lot 104). Two years later, in 1792, he first showed an interest in archaeology, working under the patronage of Prince Augustus Frederick. son of George III. Archaeology was to become his great passion and his work in this field remains highly regarded. At Ostia he made several important discoveries, including the first Mithraeum, and many of his discoveries are now at the Vatican. His other serious activity was as a dealer in pictures and antiquities, and he benefitted from the uncertainties caused by the French invasion of northern Italy. His greatest coup was certainly the purchase of the famous pair of pictures by Claude from Prince Altieri. Fagan transported the pictures from Italy at great risk and with the assistance of Lord Nelson, who helped by providing a convoy for the ship. The pictures were eventually sold in 1799 to William Beckford of Fonthill for £6825.
When the French entered Rome, Fagan fled to Naples and then to Sicily where he was warmly received by the Hamiltons and Nelson. He showed courage in adversity by leading the people of Arezzo against the invaders as far as the gates of Rome. In his later years he became Consul General for Sicily though he never achieved his ambition to be appointed to the same post in Rome. His continuing exploits as archaeologist were greatly helped by his intimacy with Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, but he did not prosper financially and his activities as a dealer displeased the British Government. In August 1816, at the age of fifty-five, he took his own life in Rome.