{"id":2072,"date":"2018-05-01T13:14:17","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T13:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2018-05-01T13:14:17","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T13:14:17","slug":"archive-spotlight-correspondence-between-james-northcote-and-peter-pindar-in-durhams-special-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2072","title":{"rendered":"Archive Spotlight: correspondence between James Northcote and Peter Pindar in Durham’s Special Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Archive Spotlight post on the blog today by\u00a0Val Derbyshire (University of Sheffield)<\/a>. Val has kindly contributed details of her research to this series before, in another Spotlight post entitled ‘Archive Spotlight on the Derbyshire Record Office: A Marriage of the Romantic and the Scientific’<\/a>. Val has also been awarded a 2018 BARS Stephen Copley Award<\/a>, and we look forward to hearing more about her work at the Royal Art Academy and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London later this year.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to contribute to this series, please find more information about how to get in touch with your ideas here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoy Val’s exploration into a heated exchange of letters that may have inspired Northcote’s\u00a0Diligence and Dissipation.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u2018[A] simple act of fornication\u2019[1]<\/a>: Diligence and Dissipation<\/em>, James Northcote and Peter Pindar by Val Derbyshire, School of English, University of Sheffield<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Just recently, I was fortunate enough to have been awarded a Stephen Copley Research Award from BARS in order to research the letters and other personal writings of portraitist James Northcote (1746-1831).\u00a0 My interest in Northcote was sparked by the discovery of his personal friendship with the subject of my doctoral thesis, Charlotte Smith (1749-1806).\u00a0 Over the past few months I have been visiting archival holdings to look at the personal correspondence of Northcote.<\/p>\n

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James Northcote, Self-portrait, c.1784, oil on canvas<\/p><\/div>\n

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Northcote has traditionally been viewed as a marginal figure within the art world of British Romanticism, but research has revealed that he was in fact central to the circles of a number of key Romantic figures.\u00a0 Exploration in the archives has shown that not only did he have an intimate friendship with William Godwin, even leaving Godwin \u00a3100 in his will, but that he also corresponded with Elizabeth Inchbald, in addition to taking tea with Smith, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Godwin.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 He was one of the last people to see artist John Opie\u00a0 alive, and Opie\u2019s wife, novelist Amelia Opie, took comfort from Northcote\u2019s visit to her dying husband\u2019s bedside, detailing Northcote\u2019s kindness and sensitivity.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Further, the connection between his own visual artistry and the literary world was clearly very important to Northcote.\u00a0 Within his Letter Book<\/em> held by the Bodleian Libraries he keeps a detailed list of every work of fiction which makes reference to or details his work.\u00a0 These include,<\/p>\n

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Northcote\u2019s pictures perused in the following: Rosalind de Tracy, <\/em>a novel by Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins. The Triumphs of Constancy, A Novel in a series of letters Mammon in London, or the Spy of the day.\u00a0 <\/em>John Thelwall also wrote about him in The Champion May 27 1821.[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Within The Papers of James Northcote, R.A. <\/em>presented to Sir William Knighton upon his death, there was also the inclusion of many extracts from the publications of the day which praised his work.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Northcote was an artist to whom the range of his influence concerned him greatly.<\/p>\n

One archive which holds a fascinating series of letters to Northcote can be found within the Special Collections of Durham University Library.\u00a0 Here, there is held a series of letters from John Wolcot (1738-1819 – aka the satirical poet, Peter Pindar), which covers the period 1774-75.<\/p>\n

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John Opie, John Wolcot, c. 1780, oil on canvas<\/p><\/div>\n

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During this time, Wolcot appealed for his friend Northcote\u2019s help because \u2018[a] Damn\u2019d Bitch as common as the air liv\u2019d with me and got herself with Bastard\u2019.[6]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018[I]n order to remove the Scandal, [Wolcot] sent her to London with money sufficient \u2019til [he] was inclin\u2019d to send her more.\u2019[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Within this series of letters, Wolcot is utterly heartless in his description of his seduction of the girl, who has clearly been his servant, and occupies the precise position of both the \u2018Modest\u2019 and the \u2018Wanton\u2019 serving girl in Northcote\u2019s series of plates, Diligence and Dissipation: Or, The Progress of a Modest Girl and a Wanton, Exemplified in Ten Different Stages of Their Lives, Being an Attempt to Exhibit the Natural Consequences which attend on Good and on Bad Conduct, <\/em>published in 1796, just a couple of years after Northcote received Wolcot\u2019s correspondence.<\/p>\n

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After James Northcote, The Modest Girl Rejects the Illicit Advances of her Master<\/em>, Plate VI from James Northcote, Diligence and Dissipation: Or, The Progress of a Modest Girl and a Wanton, Exemplified in Ten Different Stages of Their Lives, Being an Attempt to Exhibit the Natural Consequences which attend on Good and on Bad Conduct<\/em> (London: H. L. Galahin, 1796), engraved by Thomas Gaugin and Thomas Hellyer, 1796, etching on paper<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wolcot is equally callous in his subsequent abandonment of the woman when she becomes pregnant with his child, and denial that the baby boy belongs to him.\u00a0 The nine letters outline Wolcot\u2019s various pleas to Northcote to give the woman money on his behalf, and persuade her to give the child up \u2018to be taken care of as a Common Brat\u2019\u00a0 in any place which can be found for him.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 \u2018Could I have expected,\u2019 Wolcot protests, \u2018so much Disagreeableness would have followed a simple act of fornication.\u2019[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Northcote\u2019s replies are not available in the archive, but from the tone of Wolcot\u2019s letters, it becomes clear that Northcote expostulates with him upon his conduct, to which Wolcot replies \u2018she is with all that seeming simplicity a Hypocrite [\u2026] Indeed, Northcote, your honesty deludes you.\u00a0 I know her to be a B—-.\u2019[10]<\/a>\u00a0 It is unclear whether this incident affected their friendship, although one of the letters reprimands Northcote for his failure to send Wolcot a head portrait of himself.\u00a0 Indeed this portrait does not seem to exist, the head portrait of Wolcot being completed by Northcote\u2019s friend and fellow Royal Academician, John Opie.\u00a0 Despite Wolcot\u2019s protestations that Northcote should feel free to use Wolcot\u2019s services for similar purposes because \u2018[b]elieve me I\u2019ll take as much care of your Bastards if you shall think proper to send them into Cornwall,\u2019 it seems unlikely Northcote would ever do so, and that Wolcot\u2019s licentiousness placed their relationship under strain.[11]<\/a>\u00a0 It could be that the resulting plates from Diligence and Dissipation<\/em> were inspired by this unfortunate episode.\u00a0 Northcote\u2019s artworks caution the beautiful girls in his text against the men they might encounter and their flawed nature.<\/p>\n

During May this year, I will be using the funds from the Stephen Copley Research Award to dig further into the archives and reading letters from Northcote held at the Royal Art Academy and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References:<\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 24th<\/sup> March 1775 in \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 596.\u00a0 (All of the digitised versions of these letters can be accessed via\u00a0this link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>James Northcote, The Papers of James Northcote, R.A., <\/em>Collected and Presented by G. G. Williamson, (London: British Museum Additional MS 42524).\u00a0 Letters from Elizabeth Inchbald are included in The Letter <\/em>Book of James Northcote <\/em>(Oxford: Bodleian Libraries, MS Eng Misc e 143), and include charming details such as Northcote arriving uninvited at Inchbald\u2019s home in order to take Inchbald to \u2018Mrs Wedells rout\u2019 (Letter dated 28th<\/sup> May 1801).\u00a0 Unfortunately, as Northcote was not expected, Inchbald had already put her nightgown on for the night, but was then crippled by guilt at refusing to see Northcote, if only to \u2018load [him] with reproaches.\u2019<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Amelia Opie, Lecture on Painting Delivered at the Royal Academy of Arts: with a Letter on the Proposal for a Public Memorial of The Naval Glory of Great Britain by the Late John Opie Esq., to which are Prefixed a Memoir by Mrs. Opie and Other Accounts of\u00a0 Mr. Opie\u2019s Talents and Character <\/em>(London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1809), p. 49.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Northcote, The Letter Book of James Northcote<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> James Northcote, The Papers of James Northcote, R.A., <\/em>The Sir William Knighton Collection (London: British Museum Additional MS 47790-47792).<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 1774\u2019 in John Wolcot, \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 590-598 (1774-1775), holding number ABL 590.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 1774\u2019 in \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 590.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 10th<\/sup> January 1775\u2019 in \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 592.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 24th<\/sup> March 1775 in \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 596.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 6th<\/sup> April 1775\u2019 in \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 597.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a>John Wolcot, \u2018Letter to James Northcote dated 23rd<\/sup> March 1774\u2019 in \u2018Nine Letters to James Northcote\u2019, Durham Special Collections, holding number ABL 591.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Archive Spotlight post on the blog today by\u00a0Val Derbyshire (University of Sheffield). Val has kindly contributed details of her research to this series before, in another Spotlight post… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}