Charles Jervas
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Charles Jervas [Jarvis] (c. 1675-1739) was an Irish portrait painter, translator, and art collector of the early 18th century.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Dublin, Ireland around 1675, Jervas studied in London, England as an assistant under Sir Godfrey Kneller between 1694 and 1695. After selling a series of small copies of the Raphael cartoons around 1698 to Dr. George Clarke of All Souls College, Oxford, the following year he traveled to Paris and Rome (while financially supported by Clark and others) remaining there for most of the decade before returning in London in 1708 where he began successfully painting portraits.
[edit] Career
Painting portraits for many of the cities intellectuals, including personal friends such as Jonathan Swift and poet Alexander Pope (both of which now appear in the London, National Public Gallery), he would become a popular artist within the city (often being mentioned in many writing of literary figures of the period. Jervas would also give painting lessons to Pope, which Pope would reference in a poem published in 1713 later appearing in the translated 1716 ed. of Charles-Alphonse Du Fresnoy’s De arte graphica. Becoming the main artist to King George III in 1723, Jervas would continue to live in London until his death in 1739. His translation of Cervantes’s Don Quixote would later be published posthumously in 1742 as having been done by Charles Jarvis, and so, it has come to be known as "the Jarvis translation" of the novel. It has been highly praised as being the most accurate translation of the novel up to then, but also strongly criticized for being stiff and humorless, although it went through many printings up through the nineteenth century. Jervas was the first to provide an introduction that included a critical analysis of past translations of "Don Quixote". His version recently saw its first paperback printing, and its first printing anywhere in many years.
[edit] Legacy
Considered a mediocre artist during his career, Jervas was known for his vanity and luck, as mentioned in the Imperial Biographical Dictionary, "He married a widow with $20,000; and his natural self-conceit was greatly encouraged by his intimate friend [Alexander] Pope, who has written an epistle full of silly flattery."
According to one account, after comparing a painting he had copied from Titan, he was said to have stated "Poor little Tit, how he would starve !". Upon being told Jervas had set up a carriage with four horses, Kneller would reply "Ah, mine Cot, if his horses do not draw better than he does, he will never get to his journey's end."
[edit] References
- Webb, Alfred. A Compendium of Irish Biography: Comprising Sketches of Distinguished Irishmen and of Eminent Persons Connected with Ireland by Office or by Their Writings, New York: Lemma Publishing Corporation, 1970.
