Henry Hope (1735/36–1811), after Jones

The Artist: Bone was born in Truro, Cornwall, the son of a cabinetmaker. He was apprenticed as a china painter, but after the failure of the Bristol factory where he was working, he settled in London about 1779. The greater part of his output consisted of copies in enamel of old master and contemporary paintings, but he painted a few portraits ad vivum. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1781 until 1834 and was named a royal academician in 1811. He served as enamel painter to George III, George IV, and William IV, and he often incorporated references to these and similar appointments in the lengthy inscriptions he wrote in the enamel on the back of his miniatures. He died in London.

The Miniature: An extremely wealthy banking and trading family of Scottish origin, the Hopes had long been settled in Amsterdam but returned to England with the approach of the French army in 1794. Henry Hope, called "Furniture Hope," is not to be confused with his cousin Henry Philip Hope (1774–1839), whose portrait in enamel by Bone was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803 as no. 629 and for whom the Hope diamond was named.

Richard Walker (1999) states that this composition is after a portrait by George Jones (1786–1869) whose whereabouts is unknown. Walker lists three drawings by Bone related to this miniature in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London: a pencil drawing of this composition, squared for transfer and inscribed Henry Hope Esq / 1802 (no. 270), a larger version inscribed Henry Hope Esq—Novr 1804 (no. 271), and a variant inscribed Mr Hope after Jones for Miss Metcalf April 1819 (no. 272). He also mentions a second version of this enamel signed and dated August 1802 and sold at Phillips, London, July 8, 1997, no. 172.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Inscription: Signed (right edge, in black): HBone [HB in monogram]; inscribed (reverse, in black on blue enamel): Henry Hope Esqr. / Henry Bone pin[x] / April 1802

Mary Clark Thompson, New York and Canandaigua, N.Y. (until d. 1923)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Four Centuries of Miniature Painting," January 19–March 19, 1950, unnumbered cat. (p. 9).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 221.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 10, 14, 173, no. 221, ill., state that the miniature is apparently a copy after a lost portrait by George Jones; note that the National Portrait Gallery, London, has two drawings of Henry Hope by Bone.

Richard Walker. "Henry Bone's Pencil Drawings in the National Portrait Gallery." Walpole Society 61 (1999), p. 330, under no. 270, lists a second enamel by Bone of this composition sold at Phillips, London, on July 8, 1997; records two additional drawings by Bone of this composition: a larger version (no. 271) and a variant (no. 272).