Yorke, Philip
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- Yorke, Philip
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(1757 - 1834), e. s. of Hon. Charles Yorke of Tyttenhanger, Herts; educ. Harrow and Queens' Camb. 1775; MP 1780 - 90; m. 1782 Ldy. Elizabeth Lindsay, dau. of 5th E. of Balcarres [S]; suc. uncle 1790 as 3rd E. of Hardwicke; FRS 1790; FSA 1791; BM Trustee 1802 - d.; KG 1803.
1778 - 9 Venice (May 1778), Verona, Milan [Switzerland] Milan (Aug.), Genoa, Lucca, Pisa, Florence (Oct.), Siena, Rome ( - 21 Oct. - 29 Dec. 1778), Naples (Jan. 1779), Paestum (by 28 Jan.), Rome (by Apr.), Bologna (by 17 Apr.), Parma, Turin [England by 15 Sep.]
Philip Yorke, grandson of the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, travelled in Italy in 1778 - 9 accompanied by his Swiss tutor, Colonel Wittestein. He recorded his grand tour in a journal of 'Travels thro Holland, Germany, Italy & Switzerland &c. in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779' (it is now almost illegible),1 and an anonymous travel journal now at Yale is probably also by Philip Yorke.2
He came through Holland and Germany and was first briefly in Italy in 1778 when he attended the Ascension festivities in Venice. He went on to Switzerland through Verona and Milan. In August 1778 he was back in Milan and he proceeded through Lucca to Florence in October.3 He arrived in Rome on 21 October, and was soon following a course of antiquities under James Byres, who became his friend and agent. 'If you should wish to make any purchase in the virtu way', he told his uncle, 'Mr Beyers would be a very proper man for a commission'.4 By November Yorke had met Thomas Bowdler and was wanting to be remembered to John Strange, the British resident at Venice.5 On 29 December he left Rome with Bowdler and went to Naples, whence they visited Pompeii and Paestum.6 It was at Paestum on 28 January 1779 that Yorke met John Soane, an architect he was later to employ, and while Yorke admired the 'magnificent' Doric temples, Soane measured them.7 Yorke returned to Rome and began buying pictures.
He sat to Batoni, the portrait dated 1779 (Clark/Bowron 411; priv. coll.) and commissioned two large landscapes from Thomas Jones (views of Baiae and Lake Avernus) which were to be delivered to Byres.8 By April Byres had in hand for him six views of Rome by Lusieri, tables by Vinelli, '8 pastes of Mr Yorke's portrait & 2 sulphurs' and the portrait of Yorke and Wittestein by Smuglewicz9 (sold Christie's, 16 Apr. 1982). The paste was probably by J.A. Pichler, who is known to have drawn 'Monsieur Torck'.(10) On 17 April Byres was writing to Yorke in Bologna, where he was proposing to join him.9 Yorke met Farinelli there, before continuing northwards through Parma and Turin to cross the Alps at Mont Cenis.
On 15 September 1779 'Yorke', doubtless Philip, had just returned to England from Italy 'where he has been dangerously ill of a fever'.(11) Yorke remained in business with Byres, who in 1781 was seeking a set of busts for his library and paying on his behalf for a view of Naples from Lusieri and a view of Tivoli by Delane; in 1784 Byres sent him tables by Blasi, two landscapes by Jacob More (the larger one of Lake Albano)12 and a copy by Alexander Nasmyth (whom Yorke had sponsored in Italy).(13)
1. Add.36258 - 60. 2. Yale U., Beinecke lib., Osborn MSS c.332. 3. Gazz.Tosc. (31 Oct. 1778). 4. Add.35378 (31 Oct. 1778). 5. Eg.2001, f.216 (Bowdler, 7 Nov. 1778). 6. Eg. 2002,
f.5 (Bowdler, 26 Jan. 1779). 7. Add.35378, f.305 (Yorke, 31 Jan. 1779). P. du Prey, NT Studies, [1979], 28 - 38. 8. Jones Memoirs, 88. 9. Byres letters MSS y (17 Apr. 1779). 10.
Note by A.M. Clark. 11. Pembroke Papers, 1:252. 12. See More 1993, 171 - 2. 13. Byres letters MSS y (19 Sep. 1781, 14 Feb., 22 Oct. 1784).