Anne Seymour Damer

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Anne Seymour Damer

Anne Seymour Damer, née Conway, (8 November 1748, Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks is a town situated in the west of Kent, England. It gives its name to the Sevenoaks , of which it is the principal town, and lies 21.5 miles south-east of the centre of London, at the southern end of one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital....
– 28 May 1828, London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
) was an English

England

Aristocracy

Aristocracy is a form of government, in which a few of the most prominent citizens rule. This may be a hereditary elite, or it may be by a system of cooption where a council of prominent citizens add leading soldiers, merchants, land owners, priests, and lawyers to their number....
Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs are often described as one of two political party in Kingdom of England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries....
family, the only daughter of Field-Marshal Henry Seymour Conway

Henry Seymour Conway

Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway was a British general and statesman. A brother of the Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, and cousin of Horace Walpole he began his military career in the War of the Austrian Succession, and eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal ....
(1721–1795) and his wife Caroline Bruce, born Campbell, Lady Ailesbury (1721–1803), and was brought up at the family home at Park Place, Remenham

Remenham

Remenham is a village on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames near Henley-on-Thames, close to the start of the Henley Royal Regatta course in southern England....
, Berkshire

Berkshire

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Anne Seymour Damer, née Conway, (8 November 1748, Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks

London

England

Life

Anne Conway was born into an aristocratic

Aristocracy

British Whig Party

Henry Seymour Conway

Remenham

Remenham is a village on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames near Henley-on-Thames, close to the start of the Henley Royal Regatta course in southern England....
, Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a Home Counties in the South East England of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters patent issued confirming...
.

In 1767 she married John Damer, the son of Lord Milton, later the 1st Earl of Dorchester. The couple received an income of £5,000 from Lord Milton, and were left large fortunes by Milton and Henry Conway. They separated after seven years, and he committed suicide in 1776, leaving considerable debts. Her artistic career developed during her widowhood.

Damer was a frequent visitor to Europe. During one voyage she was captured by a privateer

Privateer

A privateer was a private warship authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Strictly, a privateer was only entitled by its state to attack and rob enemy vessels during wartime....
, but released unharmed in Jersey

Jersey

The Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes the nearly uninhabited islands of the Minquiers, ?cr?hous, the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs....
. She visited Sir Horace Mann in Florence

Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
, and Sir William Hamilton

William Hamilton (diplomat)

Sir William Hamilton, Order of the Bath was a Scotland diplomacy, antiquarian, archaeology and volcanology.Hamilton was the fourth son of Lord Archibald Hamilton, governor of Jamaica....
in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old....
, where she was introduced to Lord Nelson

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bront?, Order of the Bath was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland flag officer famous for his participation in the Napoleonic Wars....
. In 1802, while the Treaty of Amiens

Treaty of Amiens

The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended the hostilities between France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the French Revolutionary Wars....
was in effect, she visited Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
with the author Mary Berry

Mary Berry (writer)

Mary Berry was an English people author, born at Kirkbridge, North Yorkshire....
and was granted an audience with Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte later known as Emperor Napoleon I, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century....
.

From 1818, Anne Damer lived at York House, Twickenham

York House, Twickenham

York House is an historic stately home in Twickenham, England, and today serves as the Town Hall of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames....
. She died in 1828 at her London house in Grosvenor Square, and is buried in the church at Sundridge

Sundridge, Kent

Sundridge is a village within the civil parish of Sundridge with Ide Hill, in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The village is located on the A25 road to the east of Westerham...
, Kent

Kent

Kent is a Counties of England in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary....
, along with her sculptor's tools and apron and the ashes of her favourite dog.

Works

The development of Anne Seymour Damer's interest in sculpture is credited to her father's secretary, David Hume, and to the encouragement of Horace Walpole, who was her guardian during her parent's frequent trips abroad. According to Walpole, her training included lessons in modelling from Giuseppe Ceracchi

Giuseppe Ceracchi

Giuseppe Ceracchi was an Italy sculptor, active in a Neoclassicism style in Italy, England and the nascent United States, who was a passionate republican during the American and French revolutions....
, in marble

Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
carving from John Bacon

John Bacon

John Bacon was a British sculpture.Born in Southwark, he was the son of a cloth worker from Somerset. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a manufacturer of porcelain at Lambeth, where he was at first employed in painting the small ornamental pieces of china, but was promoted to modeller....
, and in anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology that is the consideration of the body plan. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy and plant anatomy ....
from William Cumberland Cruikshank

William Cumberland Cruikshank

William Cumberland Cruikshank was a United Kingdom chemist and anatomy. He was the author of The Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels of the Human Body, which was first published in 1786....
.

During the period 1784–1818, Damer exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London, England. As an academy, it functions to encourage British art, and has a membership of practising artists....
. Her work, primarily bust

Bust (sculpture)

A bust is a sculpture or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders....
s in Neoclassical

Sculpture

Sculpture is Three-dimensional space artwork created by shaping or combining hard and or plastic material, sound, and or text and or light, commonly Stone sculpture , metal, glass, or wood....
style, developed from early wax

Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
sculptures to technically complex ones in works in terracotta, bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive, but sometimes with other chemical element such as phosphorus, manganese, aluminium, or silicon....
, and marble. Her subjects, largely drawn from friends and colleagues in Whig circles, included Lady Melbourne, Nelson

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, Order of the Bath, President of the Royal Society was an England Natural history, Botany and patron of the natural sciences....
, George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death....
, Mary Berry

Mary Berry (writer)

Mary Berry was an English people author, born at Kirkbridge, North Yorkshire....
, Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox was a prominent Kingdom of Great Britain British Whig Party statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger....
and herself. She executed several actors' portraits, such as the busts of her friends Sarah Siddons

Sarah Siddons

Sarah Siddons was a United Kingdom actor, the best-known tragedienne of the 18th century. She was the elder sister of John Philip Kemble, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton and Elizabeth Whitlock....
and Elizabeth Farren

Elizabeth Farren

Elizabeth Farren was an England actress of the late eighteenth century....
(as the Muse

Muse

File:Muse reading Louvre CA2220.jpgThe Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts....
s Melpomene
Melpomene

Melpom?ne , initially the Muse of Singing, she then became the Muse of Tragedy, for which she is best known now. Her name was derived from the Greek verb melp? or melpomai meaning "to celebrate with dance and song." She is often represented with a tragic mask and wearing the cothurnus, boots traditionally worn by tragic actors....
and Thalia
Thalia

Thalia can refer to four distinct entities in Greek mythology, two of whom were daughters of Zeus, and a third of whom bore him sons. The name Thalia, or Thaleia is spelled T??e?a in Greek and derives from the same stem as ????e?? "to bloom"....
).

She produced keystone sculptures of Isis

ISIS

ISIS is an industry standard interface for technologies, developed by Pixel Translations in 1990 .ISIS is an open standard for scanner control and a complete image-processing framework....
and Tamesis

Tamesis

Tamesis was the ancient name for the River Thames. There may have been an eponymous goddess of the same name.Sculptures entitled Tamesis and Isis by Anne Seymour Damer can be found on the Henley Bridge at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire....
for each side of the central arch on the bridge

Henley Bridge

Henley Bridge is a five-arched stone road bridge built in 1786 at Henley-on-Thames over the River Thames, between Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It replaced an earlier wooden bridge, the foundations of which can be seen in the basement of the Henley Royal Regatta headquarters nearby on the Berkshire side....
at Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames is a town on the north side of the River Thames in south Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, Berkshire, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead, England....
. The original models are in the Henley Gallery of the River and Rowing Museum

River and Rowing Museum

The River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, is located on a site at Mill Meadows by the River Thames. It has three main themes represented by major permanent galleries, the non-tidal River Thames, the international sport of Sport rowing and the local town of Henley-on-Thames....
nearby. Another major architectural work was her 10-foot statue of Apollo

Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
, now destroyed, for the frontage of Drury Lane

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a London borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane....
theatre. She also created two bas reliefs for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery was a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a School of British history painting....
of scenes from Coriolanus
Coriolanus (play)

File:Gavin Hamilton - Coriolanus Act V, Scene III edit2.jpgCoriolanus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, based on the life of the legendary Roman Republic leader, Coriolanus....
and Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623.The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Markus Antonius and follows the relationship between Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Mark Antony from the time of the Roman-Persian Wars to Cleopatra's suicide....
.

Damer was also a writer, with one published novel, Belmour (1801).

Personal life

Anne Seymour Damer's friends included a number of influential Whigs and aristocrats. Her guardian and friend Horace Walpole was a significant figure, who helped foster her career and on his death left her his London villa, Strawberry Hill

Strawberry Hill, London

Strawberry Hill is an affluent area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames near Twickenham. It is a suburban development situated 10.4 miles west south-west of Charing Cross....
. She also moved in literary and theatrical circles, where her friends included the poet and dramatist Joanna Baillie

Joanna Baillie

Joanna Baillie was a Scottish people poet and dramatist. Baillie was very well-known during her lifetime and, though a woman, intended her plays not for the closet but for the stage....
, the author Mary Berry

Mary Berry (writer)

Mary Berry was an English people author, born at Kirkbridge, North Yorkshire....
, and the actors Sarah Siddons and Elizabeth Farren

Elizabeth Farren

Elizabeth Farren was an England actress of the late eighteenth century....
. She frequently took part in masque

Masque

The masque was a form of festive Noble court entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio....
s at the Pantheon

Pantheon, London

The Pantheon, was a place of public entertainment on the south side of Oxford Street, London, England. It was designed by James Wyatt and opened in 1772....
and amateur theatricals at the London residence of the Duke of Richmond

Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond

Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox, Order of the Garter, Fellow of the Royal Society, Privy Council of the United Kingdom is noteworthy for his advanced views on the issue of parliamentary reform....
, who was married to her half-sister.

A number of sources have named Damer as being involved in lesbian

Lesbian

File:Lesbian Couple from back holding hands.jpgLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females....
relationships, particularly relating to her close friendship with Mary Berry, to whom she had been introduced by Walpole in 1789. Even during her marriage, her likings for male clothing and demonstrative friendships with other women were publicly noted and satirised by hostile commentators such as Hester Thrale

Hester Thrale

Hester Lynch Thrale was a Kingdom of Great Britain list of diarists, author, and patron of the arts. Her diary and correspondence are also an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and eighteenth-century life....
and in the anonymous pamphlet A Sapphick Epistle from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and most Beautiful, Mrs D— (c.1770).

A romance between Damer and Elizabeth Farren, who was mentioned by Thrale, is the central storyline in the 2004 novel Life Mask by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue is an Ireland-born playwright, literary historian and novelist now living in Canada. Her novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award and Slammerkin won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction....
.

External links

including links to artworks
in the National Portrait Gallery, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
in Tate Britain
Tate Britain

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate Gallery gallery network in United Kingdom, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives....
, London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
including a from the Courtauld Institute of Art
Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top 5* grade in the most recent Research Assessm...