Thomas D'Urfey (Tom Durfey) (1653-1723)
Gerard Vandergucht (London 1696 - London 1776)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1700
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
737 x 610 mm (29 x 24 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 129866
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Thomas D'Urfey (Tom Durfey) (1653-1723) by Gerard van der Gucht (London 1696 – London 1776), circa 1700. Inscribed: THOS. DURFEY. OBT. 1723. A half-length portrait in profile to left with a pronounced hooked nose, wearing a brown coat with green cuffs, a long curled wig, holding a sheet of music in his right hand, a score (Kingdom of the Birds) under his left arm; in the background-left a curtain is drawn back to reveal shelves with books, wine-glass and bread (which a mouse is eating).
Full description
The sitter was the grandson of a Huguenot who settled in Exeter after the Siege of La Rochelle (1628), and great - nephew of the writer of pastoral romances, etc., notably L’Astrée, Honoré d’Urfé (1567 – 1625). Tom Durfey (1653 – 26 February 1723) was a prolific but somewhat scurrilous writer of burlesque songs, tales, satires, melodramas and farces (ten out of the sixty-eight songs in The Beggars Opera were his), notably Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719-20). The Kingdom of the Birds, or Wonders in the Sun, was a farcical comic opera concerned with an imaginary picture of bird life, first produced at the Haymarket on 5 April 1706, with the players dressed as parrots, crows, etc. Purcell and others also set his poems to music. He was known to stutter, except when singing or swearing, and was famed for the apothegram “All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” Despite the wine-glass featuring in this painting (but it is really no more than a reasonable accompaniment to a bit of bread and cheese), the DNB says that: “Although of convivial habits, he was never drunk.” Known for his good nature and for being good company, he was the familiar companion of Charles II and James II, and given marks of favour by William & Mary and Queen Anne, as well as being an habitué of Leicester House, Winchendon, and Knole. As well as being honorary librarian of this last, he was given an elaborate funeral by the 1st Duke, and was buried at St James’s, Piccadilly.
Provenance
In 1799 inventory: “Durfy 2 Vandergucht”, in The Dining Parlour; 1828 inventory, Dining Room (No.32); on loan from the Trustees of the Sackville Estate
Credit line
Knole, The Sackville Collection
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: On frame: bottom left, 167; tablet bottom centre inscribed: THOMAS DURFEY / [? Painted] by VANDERGUCHT
Makers and roles
Gerard Vandergucht (London 1696 - London 1776), publisher previously catalogued as attributed to John Vandergucht (London 1697 – London 1776), publisher
References
Waterhouse 1981 Ellis K. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th-century Painters in oils and crayons, Woodbridge 1981 , p.381