| Description | Professional Engagements book for the artist George Romney (1734-1802), used between October 1786 and November 1796. Entries are written in the hand of Romney’s studio assistants and servants. The volume routinely records the movement of paintings, including conservation, adjustments, framing, addresses of sitters or lenders, transportation details and sums of payments.
The main body of entries concern the transportation of portraits and requests for works to be executed/completed more quickly. Loans or paintings sent for adjustment are often referred to as having 'come home' when they are returned to the studio, as opposed to 'went home' when paintings are returned to owners. Early entries concern sitters, transportation details and customer queries, whereas latter entries tend to record payments received. These differing entries are sporadically listed under different page titles, such as 'Account of all Pictures' and 'Pictures sent away', although much of the content remains similar. The majority of entries are listed under the title 'Professional Engagements'.
The volume also includes entries which provide insight into Romney’s art practice. For example, one entry requests a sitter’s clothes to be returned and many others record messages with sitters who have been unable to reach Romney at the studio as he is often out of town. Names of regular colleagues are also used, including Saunders framers.
The volume received extensive conservation work and was rebound in its original cover by Public Record Office in Autumn 1981. Conservation work administered includes the insertion of new pages proceeding and following originals to the front and back of the volume. A note recording this work, as well as notes proposing the identity of two hands within the volume as Joseph Barker and Richard Williams, appears on page 1r. (This refers to an entry on page 30r, dated 29 July 1794, in which payment is received by 'me Jos. Barker', and an entry on page 30v dated 3 December 1794 in which the writer identifies himself as Richard Williams).
Despite conservation work, water damage to the bottom of the volume has resulted in the final lines of pages sometimes being lost or rendered illegible where a page has disintegrated. Damage is particularly evident from pages 13 - 15, of which only small fragments remain.
The entries in the volume follow a structure of the date being recorded on the left-hand side of the page, with details recorded on the right. While the structure of the volume changes as different page-titles are applied to lists (as cited above), its chronology and contents remain uniform for the most part. The volume has been catalogued by year, with any significant changes imposed by the titles of its entries being outlined at sub-file level. Likewise, any inconsistencies in chronology have been noted.
Sitters of portraits have been verified where possible using Alex Kidson's 2015 catalogue Raisonne of Romney's paintings.
Page structure of the volume is as follows:
- Inside cover - Archive referencing. Features previous reference of MS97. All notations on this page are made by unknown members of gallery staff
- Page 1r - Notes made by unknown members of gallery staff regarding identification of hands and conservation administered to volume in 1981
- Pages 1v-3v - Blank pages, not original to the volume (inserted during conservation)
- Page 4r - Blank page from original volume
- Page 4v - Notes under heading 'No. 80 Coleman Street'
- Page 5r - Professional Engagements, October - December 1786
- Pages 5v-8r - Account of all Pictures/ Professional Engagements, 1787
- Pages 8v-12v - Professional Engagements/ Pictures sent away, January - August 1788
- Pages 13-15 - Fragments, 1788-1789
- Pages 16-19r - Professional Engagements, 1789 - January 1790
- Pages 19v-22 - Professional Engagements, 1790
- Pages 23-26r - Professional Engagements, February - December 1791
- Pages 26v-27 - Professional Engagements, December 1791 - 1792
- Page 28 - Professional Engagements, June - December 1793
- Pages 29v-31r - Professional Engagements, December 1793 - February 1795
- Pages 31v-34 - Professional Engagements, February - December 1795
- Page 35 - Professional Engagements, 1796
- Pages 36-38 - Blank pages, not original to the volume (inserted during conservation) |