James Durno

'''James Durno''' (c.1745–1795) was a British historical painter who spent most of his career in Rome.

==Life== Durno was born in around 1745,<ref name=raphael/> the son of a brewery proprietor who lived the later part of his life in an area of West London then known as the "Kensington Gravel Pits" (approximately the current Notting Hill Gate).<ref name=edwards/>

In February 1769 Durno was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools, where he studied under Andrea Casali, and Benjamin West.<ref name=raphael>{{cite journal|journal=The Irish Arts Review |title=Raphael's 'Transfiguaration Some Irish Grand Tour Associations |first=Nicola |last=Figgis |pages=53–6 |year=1998 |url=https://www.irishartsreview.com/articles/raphaels-transfiguration-some-irish-grand-tour-associations/|access-date = 12 September 2024 }}</ref> He also worked as a copyist for West, and in around 1771 assisted John Hamilton Mortimer on his ceiling paintings at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.<ref name=edwards/> He received a premium of 30 guineas from the Society of Arts in 1771, and the next year was awarded 100 guineas for the best historical painting.<ref name=raphael/>

He went to Italy in 1774,<ref name=bryan>{{harvnb|Bryan|1886}}</ref> arriving in Rome by June of that year.<ref name=raphael/> During 1777–78 he lived with the sculptor Thomas Banks and his wife in the Casa Sopra Stalla di Mignanelli.<ref name=raphael/> As well as attempting to forge a career as a history painter, Durno worked as a copyist in Rome, his productions including a large copy of Raphael's ''Transfiguration''. This was completed by 1779. Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke, who saw it that year, wrote in a letter : "It is most likely the last copy that will ever be done, as the Monks of Montorio swear they will give no more permissions for fear some hurt may come to so valuable an original."<ref name=raphael/> Durno wanted £1000 for the painting, and it remained unsold until 1783, when it was bought by the Earl of Bristol, who also purchased at least two history paintings by Durno: ''The Mouming over the Dead Body of Hector'' and '' The Return of Priam with the body of Hector''.<ref name=raphael/> The copy of the ''Transfiguration'' probably the one now in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, where it was long attributed to Anton Raphael Mengs.<ref name=raphael/>

In Rome Durno painted two pictures for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery. Both feature the character of Falstaff. In one, an illustration to ''Henry IV'', he is shown raising recruits in the company of Justice Shallow and Silence,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=British Museum|title=Henry IV, Act III, Scene II / Shakespeare Gallery|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=853141&objectId=3151093&partId=1|access-date=3 July 2014}}</ref> while the other illustrates the scene in the Merry Wives of Windsor in which he is disguised as the "Old Woman of Brentford".<ref name=edwards/><ref name=wives/> The latter work was bought by Sir John Soane at the sale of the gallery in 1805, and is now in the collection of Sir John Soane's Museum in London.<ref name=wives>{{cite web|title=Scene in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/scene-in-the-merry-wives-of-windsor-123962|publisher=Art UK|access-date=2 July 2014}}</ref> According to Edward Edwards in his ''Anecdotes of Painting'' (1808) "these works did not answer the expectations of those for whom they were painted."<ref name=edwards>{{cite book|author=Edwards,Edward|title=Anecdotes of Painters|year=1808 |pages=232|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5JIBLJRE-ncC&q=%22James+Durno%22+rome&pg=PA232|location=London}}</ref>

Durno died of fever in Rome on 13 September 1795.<ref name=gents>{{cite journal|journal=The Gentleman's Magazine |volume=66 |issue=part 1|year=1796|page=81| title=Deaths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHkdAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA81}}</ref> The ''Gentleman's Magazine'' reported that <blockquote>He was buried according to the usual custom of interring Protestants in that country. All his brother artists (we mean British artists) attended; and Prince Augustus honoured his funeral by carrying a torch, as did his two gentlemen, and Lord Wycombe, Mr. Amherst, and Mr. Disney Fitch.<ref name=gents/></blockquote>

His painting ''Achilles after the Death of Patroclus'' is in the collection of the Musée des beaux-arts d'Arras:<ref>{{cite web|title=Cross-Channel: British Art in French Public Collections|url=http://musee.louvre.fr/bases/doutremanche/notice.php?lng=1&idOeuvre=671&vignette=oui&nonotice=5&no_page=1&total=44&texte=&titre=&localisation=&periode=&artiste=%22GILLRAY,%20James%22&date=&domaine=&f=3110&images_sans=images&nb_par_page=36|publisher=Musée du Louvre|access-date=2 July 2014}} It is catalogued in French as ''Achille se préparant au combat après la mort de Patrocle''.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== * {{Bryan (3rd edition)|title=Durno, James |volume=1}} (page 442)

== External links == *{{Art UK bio}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durno, James}} Category:1740s births Category:1795 deaths Category:18th-century British painters Category:British male painters Category:Expatriates in the Papal States