Kent, William
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- Kent, William
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(fl. 1742 - 61), dealer and collector.
1758 - 60 [Genoa, Bologna, Florence] Venice (by 15 Aug. 1758), Florence (by 29 Sep. 1758 - Jan. 1759), Naples (by 20 May), Rome ( - Jun. 1760), Florence (Jun.)
William Kent, the picture dealer, was in Italy 1758 - 60, apparently with his wife, buying for Sir Nathaniel Curzon of Kedleston. He was then in competition with Richard Dalton, who had no high opinion of him, telling Lord Bute that, having married an alderman's daughter with a large fortune, Kent had 'taken it into his head to turn dealer in both Pictures and Drawings and in my humble opinion, as he has not the least genius in yt way, will pay for his learning in ye end'.1
Eight of Kent's letters from Italy to Curzon provide some of his itinerary.2 From Venice on 15 August 1758 he wrote that he had already bought pictures by Van Dyck, Poussin, Maratti, Guido Reni, Annibale Carracci and 'Theodoro' [Helmbreker] - apparently on previous visits to Genoa and Florence3 - and he mentioned a collection in Bologna [Sampieri] which Dalton was also trying to buy for Sir James Lowther; the correspondence includes a list of the pictures on offer. He was in Florence on 29 September, when he had 'lost' a collection 'at Gerrini's' [the Marchese Andrea Gerini] to Lady Orford, and an Abate had refused his offer for casts. Meanwhile he was treating for a bronze head of Alexander and, in secret, negotiating for the best pictures from the Arnaldi collection. On 2 October he was able to tell Curzon he need have no regrets over losing the Sampieri collection, since he had succeeded in buying (for £;2,800) the best pictures from the marchese Arnaldi, who did not want it known; the pictures had once belonged to the marchese Niccolo Pallavicini in Rome. It appears that Dalton also took some of the Arnaldi pictures. Hayward listed Dalton and Kent in Florence 'buying up pictures' in 1758,4 and in August Horace Mann referred to 'those mighty bidders', Kent and Dalton, buying up the Arnaldi collection (from which Mann himself had just previously bought on commission works by Maratti and Gaspard Poussin).5
There was an active correspondence between Kent and Mann between March 1759 and April 1760, of which 28 letters from Mann have been listed.6 Kent's last letter from Florence is dated 11 [or 17] January 1759; he had been organising the dispatch of his purchases, which had been threatened by a flood, but only a large Goliath by Maratti was damaged. Kent also tried to buy from Mann a painting by Castiglione which Dalton ('a sad rogue') took back to England.7 His last surviving letter from Italy is from Naples on 20 May 1759; Curzon had not liked the Arnaldi 'Poussin' but, Kent protested, he had 'called in three of the ablest professors of the place who assured me of the originality of every one picture I sent you'. On 9 October 1759 Sir James Gray in Naples wrote to Mann returning a letter for Mr Kent, presumably the dealer, 'as he chose to leave Naples before the King embarked'.8 Winckelmann met Kent several times in Rome in 1760 and recorded his departure for Florence in June (due to his wife's insanity).9 He was was presumably the 'Anglois nomm? Kent' who bought the Gabburri and Luti collections and sold them in London in 1760 - 1.(10) In 1763 James Martin saw the picture collection of 'Mr Baurries' [Borri] in Florence and noted that 'many of the best' had been sold to 'one Mr Kent an Englishman'11 (Kent sold his Borri pictures at Langford's, 29 - 30 Mar. 1759). Early in 1761 Kent bought Stosch's collection of drawings in London.(12)
1. Bute MSS (23 Dec. 1758). 2. Kedleston archives, notes by A. Laing. 3. See S. Rudolph, Niccolo Maria Pallavicini. 4. Hayward List, 12, 27. 5. Wal.Corr., 21:208, 231. 6. SP 105/292 (notes by J. Wood). 7. Wal.Corr., 21:521. 8. SP 105/312, f.311. 9. Winckelmann Briefe, 2:90. See J. Fleming, Connoisseur, 141[1958]:227. 10. Archives de l'art fran?ais, 4[1853 - 4]:275; 6[1856]:228. G. Campori, Raccolta, [Modena 1870], 521. Borroni 1974b, 44 - 5. 11. Martin jnl.MSS (Dec. 1763). 12. Fleming, Adam, 279.