Sir Daniel Macnee | Two chalk portraits, of Joseph Hooker and William Jackson Hooker, c.1834-1835

By Descent: the Property of the Hooker Family

Sir Daniel Macnee 

Two portraits, of Joseph Hooker and William Jackson Hooker

executed in chalk on paper, each c.440 x 350mm., framed and glazed, manuscript labels pasted to versos identifying artists and sitters, some light spotting, portrait of Joseph Hooker with slight wear at top of frame

Portraits of two eminent botanists from the Hooker family, drawn by Sir Daniel Macnee (1806-1882), "one of Scotland's leading portrait painters [who] contributed regularly to the major exhibiting societies including the Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Royal Academy in London" (ODNB).

The first is of Joseph Hooker (1754-1845), a distant relative of the Baring brothers who worked as a "confidential clerk in their Norwich office" in addition to his pursuits as an "amateur botanist and gardener with a collection of succulent plants" (ibid.) The second is of William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), Joseph's second (and youngest) child.

According to manuscript labels in a nineteenth century hand on the versos of the frames, Macnee drew both portraits "about the year 1834", though a later label on the portrait of William Jackson Hooker dates that drawing to "January 1835"—also noting that the portrait is a "striking likeness save in the expression of the mouth which is not sufficiently good-humoured looking".

PROVENANCE:

Executed by the artist for William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), Professor of Botany, authority on marine algae, and long-standing friend of Joseph Dalton Hooker; bequeathed to Joseph Dalton Hooker upon Harvey's death: manuscript labels explaining early provenance on manuscript labels to versos of frames; thence by family descent