Letters from a Young Painter Abroad: making the private public in print

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the travel letters of James Russel (c.1720–63), an aspiring painter, separated for many years from his close-knit family in England while he studied in Rome. His letters powerfully and poignantly convey the importance to him of maintaining family ties. They also offer a rare opportunity to trace how he came to fashion them for public consumption, while still retaining personal affect. This is seen especially in the glimpses they give of his growing realisation that he lacks the necessary level of “proficiency” to succeed as a painter of the first rank. Russel’s role as a cicerone influenced the composition as well as the content of his correspondence, best illustrated in his letters to his sister Clemmy, another aspiring artist, but one who lacked her brother’s opportunities to train abroad. The letters also enrich and expand our understanding of the conventional Grand Tour narrative.