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Family Legend
The family legend
suggests that he began his career by painting Inn signs in the villages
surrounding Ansford and Castle Cary for pocket money.
At the age of fifteen he received the patronage of the well-known banker
Henry Hoare (died 1785) of Stourhead, Wiltshire. Many of the painter's
earlier works are preserved here. In 1782 he became a student at the
Royal Academy where he exhibited pictures in 1784, 1785 and 1786.
Sources:
Dictionary of National Biography.
The Gentleman's Magazine, 1817, ii, 282.
Grave's Dictionary of Artists.
Burke's Landed Gentry.
D.H.Woodforde, Woodforde Diaries and Papers.
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Engraving of George Brookes
from a portrait by Samuel Woodforde.
Date unknown but c.1801
Little
is known of Samuel's childhood years, and much of the family’s information
about the artist comes from entries in James Woodforde's diaries. We know
from that source, for instance, that by the age of seventeen, Samuel was
able to entertain at family gatherings by playing the violin.
Samuel
was also a writer of diaries though many are now lost. The diaries that
remain are for the years 1785 and 1786.
In 1786, thanks to the continuing
patronage of Henry Hoare, Samuel Woodforde travelled to Italy where he was
able to study the works of Raphael and Michelangelo in Rome. He also
visited Florence and Venice, and returned to London in 1791, resuming his
contributions to the Royal Academy in 1792. |
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Samuel Woodforde RA
A self portrait
Samuel Woodforde RA
Samuel Woodforde
the artist was born in Castle Cary in Somerset on 29 March 1763. He was
the second son of Heighes Woodforde (1720-1789) and his wife Anne Dorville,
and so, was a grandson of Samuel Woodforde, the Divine. Within the family
he is usually referred to as `Sam’ or `the artist’.
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Samuel Woodforde RA
A self-portrait
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In London, his address was 51
Great Marlborough Street. From 1792 until 1815 he was a constant exhibitor
of portraits, scenes of Italian life, historical pictures and subjects
from literature. In all, he sent 133 pictures to the Royal Academy, and
39 to the British Institution. His `Dorinda wounded by Sylvia’ is in the
Diploma Gallery at Burlington House. A watercolour `Pan teaching Apollo
(1790)’ is in the South Kensington Museum.
Many of his pictures were
engraved, including the forest scene in `Titus Andronicus’ engraved by Anker Smith for Boydell's `Shakespeare’ (1793). Most of Samuel's
compositions are said to be in the correct classical style of his period.
He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1800 and an
academician in 1807. In 1815 he married Anne Gardener, who it is supposed
was one of his models, and went to live in Italy. He died of fever at
Ferrara on 27 July 1817 leaving no children. Little is known about his
wife after Samuel's death except that the Woodforde family quarrelled with
her over the ownership of some of Samuel's pictures.
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