Stephen Poyntz Denning – Portrait of The Rev. Arnold Burrowes

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A rare watercolour by the celebrated artist. Painted on ivory, contained in a leather travelling case with protective concave glass. Inscribed to a piece of card attached to the back of the ivory; Stephen Poyntz Denning Pinxit, 1815 – Mr Wright’s Burlington Gardens, just of Old Bond Street, portrait of the Rev.d’ Arnold Burrowes.

This portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1815, No.538. (This number is put to Denning in the index, but the name of Wright, where he lived was put against the work in the catalogue.) Denning was a pupil of the miniaturist artist John Wright and lived at his house in Burlington Gardens from 1814-17. The first portrait exhibited at the RA ‘Mr. W Graves’ was in 1814 when the artist was just 19 years old.

Ivory: 108 x 85 mm.
Case: 120 x 97 mm.
Registered: SXZYB5TN

Condition: Most of the painting including the figure and face are in perfect order however there has been some overpainting on the far-left side and a little in the upper part of the red curtain. There are no cracks in the ivory, and the case and protective glass are in excellent condition.

Description

Burrowes, Rev. Arnold (1749-1819)

Burrowes had been the Senior Military Chaplain for the (HEIC) Honourable East India Company in Bombay for 42 years.

Born in 1749. Son of Thomas Burrowes (d.1764), High Sheriff of County Cavan, Ireland, in 1743 and Justice of the Peace (J.P.) for County Cavan in 1744, and Jane Nesbitt, daughter of Colonel Thomas Nesbitt. Arnold Burrowes arrived in India in 1773, aged 24 years, and served as a chaplain in Bombay until 1813. He performed the marriage service for Lachlan Macquarie and Jane Jarvis on 8 September 1793, and probably also conducted the burial service for Jane in the burial ground at Sonapur, Bombay, on 17 January 1797.

During his 42-year period as chaplain he never took leave to visit Britain, however he did eventually return, departing Bombay in December 1813 and arriving in London on 3 June 1814. He died on 31 May 1819, at Queens-Square, Bath, aged 70 years, unmarried.

Gentleman’s Magazine 1819 Vol.125 p,587; Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies. 1819 Vol. 8 p.101.