Delane, Solomon
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
- Title
- Delane, Solomon
- Full Text of Entry
-
(c.1727 - 1812), landscape painter, s. of Richard Delane; trained Dublin Soc. Schools under Robert West; awarded premium 1750; elected a Fellow and exh. SA 1763; exh. SA Dublin 1766; RA 1771 (from Rome), 1777 (from Rome); SA 1773, 1776 (from Rome); RA 1782 - 4; Parliament Ho. Dublin 1802; Hawkins St. 1812.
1755 - c.1780 [Dublin] Rome (1755), Vicenza (17 Nov. - Dec. 1757), Rome (1758), Leghorn (16 Dec. 1758 - 18 Jan. 1759) [London 1763] Rome (by Jul. 1764 - 80) with visits to Naples (Apr. 1774) [and Greece ?1775] [nr. Augsburg Feb. 1781; London 1782; Dublin 1783]
Delane spent some twenty years in Italy, principally in Rome, where he was well regarded as a landscape painter. Of his first visit, from 1755 to 1763, little is known. Hayward recorded his arrival in Rome in August 1755 and again in 1758.1 In November and December 1757 William Mylne saw him in Vicenza, and Robert Mylne recorded him in Leghorn painting with Nathaniel Dance in December - January 1758 - 9.2 In 1763 Lord Hope bought from him in Rome four views of Tivoli (see Charles, Lord Hope), but Delane is said to have been in London later that year, when he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Artists (Strickland).
By July 1764 Delane was back in Rome, where James Martin observed that 'Mr Delane is a Landskip Painter & has made good progress in his Art ... Mr Crone, Mr Delane and Mr Forester the only Persons from our Part of the World who practise Landskip-painting are All Irish'.3 In January 1769 James Barry was complaining that Delane had helped to prejudice Sir Watkin Williams Wynn against him.4 Delane took lodgings at the Palazzo Zuccari with James Nevay and Laurent P?cheux in 1770; at the Casa Religiosi Fratelli, Strada Felice, with Hugh Dean and James Nevay in 1772 and at the Palazzo Piombino from 1774 - 80 (sharing the same address with Nathaniel Marchant in 1774 - 5 and 1778 - 9).5
In 1771 Delane spoke of going to England, but he was in Rome on 6 November 1771 when Father Thorpe commented that he had 'a considerable share of merit in the landscape way'.6 On 28 April 1774 he was passing through Capua en route to Naples with William Parry and 'Heen' [possibly Hugh Dean], all described, enigmatically, as 'Pittori della Galleria Farnese'.7 Parry, at least, spent the next two months at Naples. Delane may also have visited Greece, as is suggested by his Athens landscape shown at the SA in 1776. On 17 July 1777, he was elected to the Florentine Academy.8 On 1 April 1778 Mrs Banks in Rome told Ozias Humphry that 'Mr Delane and the rest of your friends are well'.9 On 26 September 1779 Lord Herbert visited Delane at the Palazzo Babuino where he saw a moonlit scene and other works, which he did not care for.(10) James Irvine also expressed some reserve over Delane's landscapes when he wrote on 10 February 1781 that although he painted 'rather in the manner of Poussin' and 'his plans' were well laid down, Delane's colouring was 'a little too cold'; Irvine also said he was then in Germany with Mr & Lady Catherine Beauclerk's family.(11)
Paintings by Delane, mostly of views around Rome, were acquired, for example, by the Hope brothers (Charles and James), Lord Ossory, Lord Warkworth and George Grenville (Lord Buckingham). Two paintings by Delane hung in the rooms of James Byres, who was probably responsible for obtaining commissions for him.(12) Six years after his death Delane was described as having 'passed the greater part of his life in Rome'.(13)
1. Hayward List, 10, 11. 2. Mylne letters MSS (Wm. Mylne: 17 Nov., 6 Dec. 1757; Robt. Mylne: 16 Dec. 1758, 18 Jan. 1759). 3. Martin jnl.MSS (10, 18 Jul. 1764). 4. Barry, Works,
1:116. 5. AVR SA, S.Andrea delle Fratte, S.Maria del Popolo. 6. Thorpe letters MSS (15 May, 6 Nov. 1771). 7. ASN cra 1259. 8. Wynne 1990, 537. 9. Humphry corr.MSS, hu/2/67. 10. Pembroke Papers, 1:272. 11. Add.36493, f.128. 12. Byres MSS (inv. 1790). 13. Anon. sale cat., 16 Apr. 1818 (note by B. Fredericksen).
N. F.