Thomas Moore Slade

He was the son of Thomas Slade who died in 1771. Inheriting a fortune, he set off on a Grand Tour in 1774.Levey, p. 365.

In Sicily Slade visited Ignazio Paternò Castello with a letter of introduction from Sir William Hamilton. In Venice he made significant art purchases from the estate of the collector Bartolomeo Vitturi (1719–1776), with John Udny. Udny had difficulty meeting his share of the price, so Slade made a financial arrangement meaning that the whole collection came to him.{{cite journal |last1=Richter |first1=George Martin |title=Two Titian Self-Portraits |journal=The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs |date=1931 |volume=58 |issue=337 |pages=161–168 |jstor=864636 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/864636 |issn=0951-0788}}{{cite journal |last1=Yarker |first1=Jonathan |title=The last Resident: Richard Worsley and his collection of Venetian paintings |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=2012 |volume=154 |issue=1306 |page=42 |jstor=41418901 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41418901 |issn=0007-6287}} He also bought prints and drawings from Giacomo Durazzo, and further paintings to sell on in Ferrara.{{cite book |last1=Avery-Quash |first1=Susanna |last2=Huemer |first2=Christian |title=London and the Emergence of a European Art Market, 1780-1820 |date=2019-08-06 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-1-60606-595-2 |page=200 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SUejDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 |language=en}} Slade spent three years in Venice, and while there commissioned the 1775 Francesco Guardi Bird’s Eye View painting of the city.{{cite web |title=Bird's Eye View of Venice |url=https://artcollection.culture.gov.uk/artwork/5606/ |website=Government Art Collection}}

Initially, Slade displayed his collections in his house at Rochester, Kent. He later lost all he had in speculation. He took a position working for the Victualling Office at Chatham.{{cite book |last1=Chatterton |first1=E. Keble |title=The Fine Art of Smuggling: King's Cutters vs. Smugglers - 1700-1855 |date=30 December 2016 |publisher=Fireship Press |isbn=978-1-61179-135-8 |page=155 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oVyGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT155 |language=en}}

In the period after the French Revolution, Slade bought the paintings by Flemish, Dutch and German artists from the Orleans Collection, in 1792. There were 147 pictures involved, and Slade was acting on behalf of a syndicate.{{cite book |last1=Donington |first1=Katie |title=The Bonds of Family: Slavery, commerce and culture in the British Atlantic world |date=15 November 2019 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-2950-5 |page=288 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WK-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT288 |language=en}} These associates were connected to the London bank Ransom, Morland & Hammersley, founded in 1786: William Morland, Thomas Hammersley and George Kinnaird, 7th Lord Kinnaird.{{cite web |title=Ransom, Bouverie & Co., London – British Banking History Society |url=https://banking-history.org.uk/record/ransom-bouverie-co-london/ |website=banking-history.org.uk}}{{cite book |last1=Gaskell |first1=Ivan |last2=Thyssen-Bornemisza Sammlung |title=Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection |date=1990 |publisher=Philip Wilson Publishers |isbn=978-0-85667-352-8 |page=18 |language=en}} The following year, Slade put the paintings up for sale in London.{{cite book |last1=Marchi |first1=Neil De |last2=Goodwin |first2=Craufurd D. W. |title=Economic Engagements with Art |date=1999 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-2489-8 |page=198 note 23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FB_Yh8DXuz0C&pg=PA198 |language=en}}

Slade was a dealer based in Bond Street in 1801, and a sales catalogue shows he stocked paintings by the English artists Joshua Reynolds, John Rathbone and James Thornhill, as well as many foreign masters.{{cite web |title=Sales Catalog Br-52 |url=https://piprod.getty.edu/starweb/pi/servlet.starweb# |website=piprod.getty.edu}} He lost all he had in speculation; he suffered bankruptcy in 1803.{{cite book |title=The Law Journal |date=1803 |publisher=Richard Phillips |page=581 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t30vAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA581 |language=en}}

• Michael Levey, An English Commission to Guardi, The Burlington Magazine Vol. 102, No. 689 (Aug., 1960), pp. 363–366, Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/873044

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Category:18th-century births

Category:19th-century deaths

Category:English art dealers