John Downman

JOHN DOWNMAN (England, 1749-1824).
"Portrait of Thomas Simpson."
Miniature pastel on panel.
Signed.
Inscribed on the back.
Measurements: 18.5 x 14 cm; 29 x 25 x 6 x 6 cm (frame).

Portrait of the English inventor and mathematician Thomas Simpson (Simpson's rule is named after him), by his contemporary portrait painter John Downman.

John Downman was a British painter. After his early schooling in Ruabon and then briefly in Liverpool, he eventually attended the Royal Academy schools and was for a time in the studio of Benjamin West. Downman set sail in 1773 with Joseph Wright of Derby, Ann Wright, who was pregnant, and Richard Hurleston for Italy. Their ship took refuge for three weeks at Nice before completing its outward voyage at Livorno, Italy, in February 1774. Downman returned to Britain in 1775. He settled for a time in Cambridge (1777) and eventually moved to London, where he participated in several art exhibitions. In 1804 he moved to the village of West Malling in Kent. [5] In 1806, Downman visited Plymouth in the West Country, and between 1807 and 1808 he practiced in Exeter. He subsequently worked in London for some years, settled in Chester in 1818-19, and finally moved to Wrexham, where his only daughter married and where he died on 24 December 1824. He left a large collection of paintings and drawings to his daughter. He was also the father of Sir Edwin Downman. He exhibited 148 works at the Royal Academy between 1769 and 1819, mainly portraits, but often with fantastic subjects, such as "Rosalind", painted for the Shakespeare Gallery; "The Death of Lucretia"; "The Priestess of Bacchus"; "Tobias"; "The Beautiful Rosamunda"; "The Return of Orestes"; "Duke Robert", etc. In 1795 he was elected associate member of the Royal Academy. His first work at the Royal Academy (1769) was "A Small Portrait in Oil," and his last (1819), "A Deceased Princess Personifying Peace Crowning the Glory of England Reflected in Europe, 1815." In 1884, the trustees of the British Museum acquired, by purchase, a volume containing numerous color drawings by Downman, including several portraits, now mounted separately. He also left several volumes of exquisite drawings, executed in red and black chalk, of which Ralph Neville Grenville published a catalog (Taunton, 1865). He also painted some miniature portraits. Bartolozzi and others produced engravings. Many of his portraits have attached to them remarks of considerable importance about the persons depicted.