Neptune's Grotto at Tivoli
attributed to Jacob More (Edinburgh 1740 – Rome 1793)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1780
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
545 x 759 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 267166
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Neptune's Grotto at Tivoli, attributed to Jacob More (Edinburgh 1740 – Rome 1793), circa 1780. Jacob More was Scottish landscape painter who settled in Rome in 1773. His full-length self-portrait in the Uffizi shows himself painting in front of Neptune's Grotto at Tivoli, a popular subject. He became a dealer and agent for the Earl-Bishop of Bristol who commissioned at least 14 pictures from him of which the only survivor is the signed and dated 1780 'Ideal Classical Landscape with Cicero and Friends' at Ickworth (NT 851984). Drawings by More of Neptune's Grotto are in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland (D281, D5634).
Provenance
Anon, sale, Christie's, 4 November 1960 [Lot 30, as by Wright of Derby], bought Agnew on Brinsley Ford's behalf, (30 guineas); given to Augustine Ford in 1976. Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from Augustine Ford and allocated to the National Trust for Osterley, 2023.
Makers and roles
attributed to Jacob More (Edinburgh 1740 – Rome 1793), artist previously catalogued as by Joseph Wright of Derby (Derby 1734 - Derby 1797), artist
References
Ford 1998 Brinsley Ford, John Ingamells, Francis Russell, John Christian, Nicholas Penny, Jennifer Montagu, Howard Coutts, Timothy Wilson & Dudley Dodd, The Ford Collection – II, Walpole Society, Vol. 60, 1998, pp. 91-376, RBF66 Andrew 1993 Patricia R. Andrew, 'Jacob More: Biography and a Checklist of Works', Walpole Society, lv [1989/90], 1993, pp.105-96, figs. 57-142. , p. 167,n o.B.5.iv Garnett 2015: Oliver Garnett, At Home with Art Treasures from the Ford Collection at Basildon Park, National Trust, 2015, p. 29