File:Anne Seymour Damer. A woman of art and fashion, 1748-1828 (1908) (14576594189).jpg

Identifier: anneseymourdamer00nobl (find matches)
Title: Anne Seymour Damer. A woman of art and fashion, 1748-1828
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Noble, Percy
Subjects: Damer, Anne Seymour Conway, Mrs., 1749-1828
Publisher: London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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ours most truly, Anne Damek. Park Place, August 20, 1780.E 65 ANNE SEYMOUR DAMER CHAPTER VIII HER WIDOWHOOD Now that Mrs. Darner was left a childless widow,she was able to turn her attention to the onesubject that really gave her more interest thanany other—her desire to excel in the art ofsculpture. During the nine years of her marriedlife she does not seem to have had much time topursue this occupation, although she had madeseveral trips to the Continent, where she hadlearnt much in the famous galleries and studiosof France and Italy. Pressure for money to pay her late husbandsdebts, as well as her health, led her for a whileto spend her time abroad. She was at this dateabout twenty-eight years of age, and, notwith-standing her many accomplishments, anxious toimprove herself in the knowledge of art. Duringthe first winter of her widowhood, accompaniedby her aunt, Lady William Campbell, shetravelled through Spain, Portugal, and Italy,and spent some time in Paris. On this expedi- 66
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PORTRAIT BY R. COS WAY, R.A. HER WIDOWHOOD tion Mrs. Darner was able to study the bestmodels and to obtain the best instruction insculpture. Horace Walpole wrote to Sir HoraceMann : * Mrs. Darner, General Conways daughter,is going abroad to confirm a very delicate con-stitution ; she has one of the most solid under-standings I ever knew; astonishingly improved,but with so much reserve and modesty, that Ihave often told Mr. Conway he does not knowthe extent of her capacity and the solidity of herreason. We have by accident discovered thatshe writes Latin like Pliny, and is learningGreek. In Italy she will be a prodigy; shemodels like Bernini; has excelled the modernsin the similitudes of her busts, and has latelybegun on marble. In the following year Mrs. Darner returned toEngland. On September 7, 1778, Horace Wal-pole wrote to her father, who was then at Jersey :1 The only thing you will care for knowing is,that I never saw Mrs. Darner better in her life,nor look so well, you may trus

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