Another Engraver in South Molton Street

I recently purchased the engraved trade-card of John Claude Nattes, (c 1765-1839), topographical draughtsman, drawing master, print dealer, and occasional print-maker, who lived in South Molton Street from c 1787 to some time after 1795. The card  shows a monument with two hooded figures on top flanking a group of art-related objects including a palette and brushes, a pyramid behind; trees in the foreground to the left. The plinth of the monument is inscribed "Mr Nattes, 49 South Molton Strt.".

The card has been trimmed to the image  (50 x 79 mm.) but other copies now in the British Museum supply an imprint: "C.N. [i.e. Claude Nattes] del.    W. Angus sc.".

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John Claude Nattes was one of the most remarkable English watercolourists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a talented painter of the landscapes of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern France. He was a pupil of the Irish landscape painter Hugh Primrose Dean and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1781, when he was sixteen, to 1814. Joseph Farington noted (diary entry for 31 July 1797) that he was a Frenchman and that he had been a servant of Dean's at Rome.

 

The date and place of birth of John Claude Nattes however remain unknown. (Alexander's suggestion that he was Jean Naty, born 9 October 1765, at Beaulon, Allier, France, the son of Claude Naty and Jeanne Dessauges is refuted by the death of Jean Naty with the same parents, 21 May 1766.)

Trade-cards in the British Museum (Heal,56.10 and Banks,56.17) advertise "Monsieur Nattes No.41 Charles Street, Westminster. Pupil of Mr. Dean, respectfully acquaints the Nobility & Gentry that he teaches Drawing in the manner of that celebrated Master, on moderate terms, he also teaches Perspective so very essential in taking Local Views. Monsieur Nattes likewise continues to decorate Drawings & Prints in the most elegant manner & has a very superior method of fixing or binding Drawings in Chalks or Lead to prevent them from being Effaced." 

Nattes exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, initially from 41 Charles Street, Westminster, then Parliament Street, and from 1787 at 49 South Molton Street, off Oxford Street. It is unclear when he left South Molton Street. He was certainly still occupying property there in 1797 despite recording other addresses at 14 Queens Buildings, Knightsbridge, in 1795 and 92 New Bond Street in 1797.

In 1789 he was commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks to record the buildings of Lincolnshire in

A Collection of Views of the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry of Castles Churches and Chapels The Ruins of Ancient Buildings and other objects within the County of Lincoln Executed at the latter end of the Eighteenth Century by Claude Nattes & others Artists under the superintendence of Sir Jos: Banks The whole Alphabetically arranged according to the Names of their respective Parishes in Four Volumes.

The set of some 700 drawings was completed in 1805 and is now housed in Lincolnshire Archives. The Archives also hold a few etchings of Lincolnshire buildings prepared by Nattes.

(Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, by Nattes for Joseph Banks.)

He was married from his South Molton Street address to Sarah Barber, by Licence at Saint Botolph Bishopsgate, in the City of London, on 30 March 1793 . They had two children during their marriage: Charles Claude Nattes, born 13 January 1794, and John William Nattes, born 1796. His last recorded address was at Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square. 

Following the Treaty of Amiens (1802) he was able to make frequent visits to France preparing a series of large French views, eventually published as Versailles, Paris, et Saint Denis; ou une Suite de Vuës d'apres des desseins par J. C. Nattes, pour servir à l'illustration de la capitale de France et des environs. Avec une description historique (Londres, 1806?).

Nattes was a founding member of the Old Watercolour Society, artists who seceded from the Royal Academy in 1804 where they felt that their work commanded insufficient respect and attention. The society was originally the Society of Painters in Water Colours, founded by William Frederick Wells, and its original membership was William Sawrey Gilpin, Robert Hills, John Claude Nattes, John Varley, Cornelius Varley, Francis Nicholson, Samuel Shelley, William Henry Pyne and Nicholas Pocock. In 1831 a schism created another group, the New Society for Painters in Water Colours, and so the 1804 group became known as the Old Watercolour Society.

Nattes was expelled from the Old Watercolour Society in 1807 after being accused of presenting watercolours which were signed by him but were thought not to be his work. Sadly from the point of view of his reputation, the accusation laid against him does not appear to be unfounded. He then resumed exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

His younger son John William Nattes, a lieutenant in the Madras Engineers, was killed 29 May 1818 at the Siege of Mallegoan, India at the age of 22. His elder son Charles Claude Nattes, also of the Madras Army died suddenly 21 December 1818 at the age of 24, at the house of the Governor, on Prince of Wales Island (now Penang, Malaysia),. Charles Claude was said to have died from grief at the loss of his brother John.

For a long time John Claude Nattes was assumed to have died around 1822. He may instead have been out of England, again travelling in France. It is now known that he died in Dover 7 September 1839 and was buried 14 September 1839 at St. Mary the Virgin, Dover. His will is dated 19 March 1812 and probate was granted 25 September 1839 to Joseph Barber (brother-in-law and executor) and Sarah Nattes (widow and executrix). The Death Duty Registers of 1839 note his residence in St Germain (presumably Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris). Sarah died in 1845 at Clapham.

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In September 1803, after an absence of three years in the Sussex village of Felpham, William  and Catherine Blake returned to London. Initially they lodged with William's brother and sister, James and Catherine Elizabeth Blake, at James's hosiery shop at 28 Broad Street, Carnaby Market. Less than a month later, William and Catherine moved into lodgings at 17 South Molton Street. Prior to their sojourn in Felpham, William and Catherine had lived comfortably in a substantial three-storey house, 13 Hercules Buildings, Lambeth. Why the move to a small flat in a fashionable and more expensive district? As printseller and occasional printmaker, Nattes was certainly part of Blake's professional world. But if we note the presence among the founding members of the Old Watercolour Society of Cornelius and John Varley, friends of William Blake, and of Samuel Shelley, close acquaintance of George Cumberland, it is indeed likely that Nattes was one of Blake's social circle. I suggest, however tentatively, that Nattes alerted William and Catherine Blake, looking for a permanent residence on their return from coastal Sussex, that there was an apartment to rent in South Molton Street with the good north-east light an engraver required.

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Sources and further reading

John Aldred.—"John Claude Nattes: an Anglo-French artist in Lancashire in 1807".—The British Art Journal, vol. 4, no. 2 (2003) 91-2.

David Alexander.—A biographical dictionary of British and Irish engravers, 1714-1820.—London : Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2021.

E.A.B. Barnard.—"John Claude Nattes, artist (1765?-1822)".—Notes and Queries (2 October 1948).

Harold B. Carter.—Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820.—London : British Museum (Natural History), 1988.

    Details Nattes's work for Banks, 1789-1797.

Angus Whitehead.—"'I write in South Molton Street, what I both see and hear': reconstructing William and Catherine Blake's residence and studio at 17 South Molton Street, Oxford Street".—The British Art Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2010/11), 62-75.

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