Joseph Antony Adolph
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Joseph Antony Adolph (often Adolphe) (1729–after 1771) was a Moravian painter who spent part of his career in England.
Life
He was born at Nikolsburg in Moravia (now Mikulov in the Czech Republic), on 6 July 1721, the son of Joseph Frank Adolph, painter to Prince C. Max von Dietrichstein. He was in Paris in 1745 and by 1750 he was in England, where he stayed for some years. He painted an equestrian portrait of the Prince of Wales (later King George III of Great Britain); an engraving after it, by Bernard Baron, was published in 1755.{{cite web|title=King George III by Bernard Baron, after Josef Anton Adolph |url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw141693/King-George-III|publisher=National Portrait Gallery|accessdate=17 July 2015}} He spent some time in Norfolk, painting portraits of Elisha de Hague{{cite web|website=Art UK|title=Elisha de Hague, Sr (1717–1792), Town Clerk of Norwich|accessdate=17 July 2015|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/elisha-de-hague-sr-17171792-town-clerk-of-norwich-1649}} and Benjamin Hancock for the collection of civic portraits hung in St Andrew's Hall in Norwich in 1764, and exhibiting his paintings "at the Bowling Green, near Chapel Fields" in the city that year.{{cite web|website=Art UK|title=Benjamin Hancock, Mayor of Norwich (1763) |accessdate=17 July 2015|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/benjamin-hancock-mayor-of-norwich-1763-1590}}{{cite book|title=A General History of the County of Norfolk|first=John|last=Chambers|location=Norwich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Q4HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1192|year=1829|pages=1191–2}} A portrait of Caroline D'Arcy, 4th Marchioness of Lothian in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland, previously attributed to Allan Ramsay is now thought to be by Adolph; the collection suggests that it may have been painted when she was living at Blickling, Norfolk, in around 1750.{{cite web|url=https://art.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5349/caroline-darcy-4th-marchioness-lothian-died-1778?search=Caroline%20D%27Arcy%2C%204th%20Marchioness%20of%20Lothian&search_set_offset=0|title=Caroline D'Arcy, 4th Marchioness of Lothian (died 1778)|publisher=National Galleries Of Scotland}}
During his years in England Adolph is said to have worked mostly as a portrait painter, but on his return to Austria he was employed in the decoration of interiors, adorning walls with frescoes, and painting the ceilings of large saloons. Three altarpieces by him are in the collegiate church of Nikolsburg.{{cite DNB|wstitle= Adolph, Joseph Antony|volume=1}} The date of his death is unknown, although he was still alive in 1772.{{cite ODNB|author=Monkhouse, William Cosmo, revised by Nicholas Grindle | chapter=Adolph, Anton von Freenthal (b. 1721)|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2004| doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/168|chapter-url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/168|access-date=16 July 2015}}The first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography erroneously gives the date of his death as 1761.
References
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Sources
- {{DNB|wstitle= Adolph, Joseph Antony|volume=1}}
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Category:18th-century Austrian painters
Category:18th-century Austrian male artists
Category:Austrian male painters
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire
Category:Immigrants to the Kingdom of Great Britain
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