An rare example of a English deathbed painting, this is one of two such works by Willes Maddox, the final artist who worked for Thomas William Beckford (1760-1844), the renowned English art collector, novelist and architect of Fonthill. Following the sale of Fonthill in 1823, Beckford moved to Bath to 18-20 Lansdown Crescent and constructed Lansdown Tower, a Greco-Italian tower overlooking the city he had built in the 1820s with local architect Henry Edmund Goodridge, filling it with what remained of his collection. The tower was one of the most original and beguiling buildings to be erected in early-nineteenth century Britain and, being fascinated by death, was planned to be his own mausoleum. Beckford had wished to be buried in a chamber of the tower but conceded later to being placed in the garden directly adjacent. However the diocese refused to consecrate the garden and was buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery. Beckford died from a short bout of influenza on the 2nd May 1844, was embalmed and put on public display in his coffin at All Saints Church in Bath. The funeral took place on the 18th May, with a procession from Lansdown Crescent to the cemetery in Lyncombe Vale, a new burial ground on the slopes on the opposite side of the city. Beckford's self-designed tomb, a massive sarcophagus of polished pink granite carved in 1842 with bronze armorial plaques, stood on a small mound in the cemetery. On one side is a quotation from Vathek: "Enjoying humbly the most precious gift of heaven to man – Hope", and on another lines from his poem, A Prayer: "Eternal Power! Grant me, through obvious clouds one transient gleam of thy bright essence in my dying hour." After his death, Lansdown Tower and his house at Lansdown Crescent was inherited by his daughter Susan Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton and sold to a local publican, she bought it back in 1847 and gave the tower and its land to the Rector of Walcot for consecration as a chapel and cemetery in 1848. This allowed Beckford's remains to be reinterred near the Tower as he had wanted.
Both versions of this portrait were commissioned by his daughter, Susan, Duchess of Hamilton, the other full-length version of Beckford’s deathbed remains within the family in the Beckford Collection at Brodick Castle, since 1958 under the care of the National Trust for Scotland. Maddox employed significant artistic license to depict her father in these scenes, removing the plethora of artworks and cabinets that had surrounded his bed by the time of his death in Lansdown Crescent, for a plain crimson curtain and carefully selected works to represent his life, such as an open book by his headboard. This portrait version is placed within a rosewood box-frame, surrounded by brass and giltwood fleur-de-lis and two Hamilton family heraldic emblems. From his mother, Maria Hamilton granddaughter of James Hamilton, 6th Earl of Abercorn, the cinquefoil taken from the arms of the chief of Clan Hamilton, and the Latimer cross, illustrating Beckford's descent from William, Lord Latimer of Corby (d.1302), all of which similarly decorated the sides of his coffin. In this way this portrait encased with its symbolic family emblems represents a poignant shrine of remembrance for his daughter to cherish after his death.
Willes Maddox was a local Bath artist known for his portraits and historical works, painting a series depicting the paintings and objets d’art Beckford owned and three interior lunettes of the Sanctuary at Lansdown Tower (reproduced in lithographs by C.J. Richardson in Views of Lansdown Tower, Bath. The Favorite Edifice of the Late William Beckford Esqr. 1844) later completing portraits of Beckford’s daughter and her husband the 10th Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, he went on to exhibit at the Royal Academy and the British Institution from 1844-53.
Together a set of silver-gilt spoons with the Beckford crest and the below books on Beckford:
[MARANA, Giovanni Paolo]. The Eight Volumes of Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy. London: 1723. 8 vols.
BECKFORD, William. Vathek with the Episodes of Vathek. Edited by Guy Chapman. Cambridge: 1929.
BECKFORD, William. The Vision Liber Veritatis. Edited by Guy Chapman. Cambridge: 1930.
BECKFORD, William. Italy; with Sketches of Spain and Portugal. Third edition. London: 1835. 2 vols.
BECKFORD, William. Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaca and Batalha. London: 1835.
BECKFORD, William. Italy; with Sketches of Spain and Portugal. London: 1834. 2 vols.
La Vie de la Duchesse de la Valerie. Cologne: 1695.
BECKFORD, William. Vathek with the Episodes of Vathek. Edited by Guy Chapman. Cambridge: 1929.
SITWELL, Sacheverell. Beckford and Beckfordism. London: 1930.
A Description of Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire. London: 1812.
CHAPMAN, Guy. Beckford. London: 1937.
MAUDE, Aylmer. Leo Tolstoy. London: 1918.
Memoirs of William Beckford. London: 1859.
BECKFORD, William. Vathek. London: 1905.
The New Testament. London: [N.D.]
DAY & DIVES. Illustrations of Mediaeval Costume in England. London: [N.D.]
RUTTER, John. Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey. London: 1823.
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These books are sold as viewed and are not subject to return.
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