Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-79 and his British Patrons

Steffi Roettgen

During his lifetime Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79) was considered one of the most important painters in Europe, but his reputation declined with the rise of Romanticism and has only begun to recover in recent years. Born in Aussig, and brought up in Dresden, he became Principal Painter to the royal courts of Saxony and Madrid, but his main base was to be Rome. He never visited Great Britain, refusing, out of loyalty to his King, the invitations he received to come and work here. Through the diplomat Sir Charles Hanbury Williams in Dresden, Mengs was introduced to key members of the British circle in Florence, such as the ambassador Sir Horace Mann, who provided a crucial link between British travellers and the artistic circles of Rome. This was, of course, the heyday of the British Grand Tour, and in many ways, it was unnecessary for Mengs to go to Britain - Britain, in the wealthy...

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