Peter Monamy - Later Life

Later Life

On taking up residence as a studio painter, in Westminster in the early 1720s, Monamy’s practice to all appearances entered a new and prosperous phase. His standing as a Liveryman of the Painter-Stainer’s Company in 1726 was cemented by the donation to Painter’s Hall of what was subsequently described by Thomas Pennant as "a fine piece of shipping", which is still in situ. Five large paintings, one dated 1725, were produced for George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, (1663–1733) First Lord of the Admiralty from 1727, commemorating his naval triumphs. While establishing himself as London’s pre-eminent marine painter, Monamy will have continued to undertake commissions as a house decorator. There is extant a marine overmantel firmly attributable to him in a house in Old Burlington Street, near Bond Street, London, which is datable to 1728.

The climate during the early 1720s was exceptionally favourable, in terms of patronage and taste, for native English artists. Horace Walpole expressed it in these words: "The new monarch was void of taste … it was more natural to George I to be content with, or even partial to whatever he found established, than to seek for improvement and foreign ornament." This climate changed, radically, both politically and aesthetically, during the years following the death of George I in 1727, and during the decade from 1730 to 1740 Monamy would have found that his practice became increasingly hard-pressed, as it met with the censure of groups of self-appointed arbiters of taste, and the importation of quantities of old master paintings from Italy and France, as well as of artists and aesthetic concepts from the continent. These were sufficiently detrimental to native English practitioners to drive William Hogarth, Monamy’s close contemporary, to expressions of near-fury.

Hogarth is credited with hitting upon the idea of using the re-opening in 1736 of Vauxhall Gardens, a pleasure resort for Londoners, as a show-place for native English paintings. Monamy supplied at least four prominently displayed naval scenes for the Gardens. These are now lost, but known from engravings. In a review for the "Times Literary Supplement", 27 January 2012, of Coke and Borg's "Vauxhall Gardens", John Barrell points out that "a national art in the making was reinforced by a number of modern history paintings by Peter Monamy, of English naval victories". Two of these paintings (the Algerine Pirates and Sweet William's Farewell, both engraved by Paul Fourdrinier) appear to have been on display prior to the war with Spain, which began in 1739. A substantial number of prints, in mezzotint and line, after Monamy’s works, were produced in the years from about 1730 until just before his death in 1749. These continued to be reproduced and copied, in some quantity, until well into the 19th century.

During his final years a significant number of Monamy’s paintings can be closely associated with the naval exploits of several English fleet officer members of the Durell family of Jersey, and the de Sausmarez family of Guernsey, who were themselves linked by multiple marriage ties. In the period preceding Britain’s crucial first bid for global naval supremacy, at Porto Bello in 1740, and during the mounting opposition to the appeasement policies and other political measures of Robert Walpole, England’s long-serving Premier Minister, these sea-captains were among the most active and vociferous of his opponents. Monamy painted numerous versions of Admiral Vernon's capture of Porto Bello, including a canvas for public display at Vauxhall Gardens. It was reported in The Daily Post, a London newspaper, of Tuesday, 20 May 1740, that the Prince of Wales had selected "the Picture representing the taking of Porto Bello" for particular inspection during a visit to the Gardens the previous evening. Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1707–1751, was at that time publicly heading the political opposition to Robert Walpole.

Monamy continued as the marine painter most esteemed by active serving seamen, even during his slow financial decline and loss of aristocratic patronage, and for many decades after his death. In 1749 George Vertue expressed this reputation: "his industry and understanding in the forms and buildings of shipping with all the tackles ropes & sails &c which he thoroughly understood made his paintings of greater value; besides his neatness and clean pencilling of sky and water by many was much esteemed, especially sea-faring people, officers & others, merchants &c." Joseph Highmore noted, in 1766, that "A sailor … is a better judge of the principal circumstances which enter into the composition of a sea-piece, than the best painter in the world, who was never at sea."

Vertue goes on to relate that "he lived some years latter part of his life at Westminster near the river side, for the conveniency in some measure of viewing the water & sky; though he made many excursions towards the coasts and seaports of England to improve himself from nature thus having run thro' his time being decayed and infirm some years before his death, which happened at his house at Westminster the beginning of Feb 1748/9 leaving many paintings begun and unfinished, his works being done for dealers at moderate prices kept him but in indifferent circumstances to his end." Monamy was buried in St Margaret’s Church on 7 February 1749.

These "indifferent circumstances", which only apply to his last two or three years, have been over-stressed in many later accounts of Monamy’s life. Well over a year after his death, on 26 July 1750, his studio possessions, pictures, prints, drawings, ship models, furniture and collection of china were auctioned, the sale lasting a full day. His house, which he must have moved into from Fish Yard some time after 1730, was described in the auctioneer’s advertisement as "next to King Henry VIIth’s Chapel, in Old Palace Yard", at the east end of Westminster Abbey. The building is noticeable in an engraving of the Abbey by Samuel Wale included in Volume 1 of Robert Dodsley’s London and its Environs Described, 1761. However, it is clear that Monamy’s two daughters, Mary and Ann, and more particularly his widow, were left in financial difficulties.

Ann Monamy had married Thomas Cornwall, an apothecary, on 14 February 1745, at St George’s Chapel, Mayfair, and their eldest son, Peter Monamy Cornwall, was baptised on 20 January 1747, at St Margaret’s, Westminster. Four months after Peter Monamy’s death Mary Monamy married Francis Swaine, 1725–1782, on 29 June 1749, at Allhallows, London Wall. Their second child, and only known son, was baptised Monamy Swaine on 27 February 1753, at St Dunstan’s Stepney. Monamy Swaine followed his father and grandfather as a marine painter.

The range of Monamy’s painting oeuvre is remarkably wide and varied, and it is apparent that in his prime he must have headed a considerable studio, and that a number of younger and older assistants would have participated in studio productions during his 45 year career. It is very possible that Charles Brooking was one of these, during the 1740s. Francis Swaine, who became a highly regarded marine painter from about 1758 onwards, is explicitly referred to as "Old Swaine, pupil of Monamy", in a memoir of Admiral Sir George Young, who had taken part in the second Capture of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, 1758. In Mark Noble's Biographical History of England, 1806, under the entry for Monamy, it is stated that "Swaine, of Stretton Ground, Westminster, his disciple, and bred under him, was an excellent painter of moon-light pieces."