£19,232
The Classic Tradition : European Art from 15th to 19th Centuries | 586
Auction: 30 October 2019 at 13:00 GMT
Oil on canvas
Note: The singer Mary Ann Paton was born in Edinburgh in October 1802, the eldest daughter of George Paton, a writing-master and amateur violinist, and his wife, née Crawford, of Cameron Bank, also an amateur musician. As a child she studied the harp, the violin and the piano. She made her first appearances in 1810 as a singer, also playing the harp and piano, and reciting. The family settled in London in 1811 and she sang at the Noblemen's Subscription Concerts but then withdrew on health grounds. She continued to study, taking harp and piano lessons with Samuel Webbe the Younger and resumed her career as a singer in Bath in 1820 and in Huntingdon the following year.
In 1822, Paton joined the Haymarket Company, where her performances included Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (3 August), the Countess in the same opera, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Lydia in George Frederick Perry's Morning, Noon, and Night, and Polly in The Beggar's Opera. Among her roles at Covent Garden were Mandane in Arne's Artaxerxes and Clara in Linley's The Duenna. The critics of the day warned her against exaggerated ornamentation, but her success was undoubted. An article of 1823 commented:
'She was gifted with extraordinary powers, not only as relates to the physical organ, but with an enthusiasm, an intellectual vigour of no common kind. … Not yet twenty-one, yet her technical attainments, we are disposed to think, are nearly as great as those of any other vocalist in this country, with slight reservations and allowances … She is beautiful in her person and features … above the middle height, slender, and delicately formed; her dark hair and eyes give animation and contrast to a clear complexion, and sensibility illuminates every change of sentiment that she has to express. … Her compass is A to D or E.'
At that time, her voice was not evenly produced. Her technique was fluent:
'no difficulties appal or embarrass her. Even in Rossini's most rapid passages she multiplies the notes in a way few mature singers would attempt. … Her manner, exuberantly florid, is the fault of her age, and in some sort, of her attainment.'
At her father's insistence Paton broke off her engagement to a young doctor named Blood, who acted for a short time under the name of Davis. Afterwards, on 7 May 1824, she became the wife of Lord William Pitt Lennox (1799–1881). Her reputation was greatly enhanced when she sang as Agathe in the first English version (by William Hawes) of Weber's Der Freischütz at the Lyceum on 22 July 1824. A still greater triumph followed with her creation of Reiza in the première of his Oberon, which he conducted on 12 April 1826.
‘Miss Paton is a singer of the very first rank, and will sing Reiza divinely,' Weber wrote. However, he later had difficulties with her in the rehearsals, which had to be interrupted when her child died, and, like others, found her a poor actress. He also deplored her ornamentation of his music.
Fanny Kemble referred to 'the curious absence of dramatic congruity of gesture and action which she contrived to combine with the most brilliant and expressive rendering of the music,' causing Charles Kemble to declare, 'That woman's an inspired idiot!' and Weber to wring his hands in despair. There was general agreement about her singing on this occasion, J. E. Cox describing her voice as 'sweet in tone, but also brilliant and powerful in strength, which study, practice and growth of years thoroughly mellowed and ripened.' Weber's last appearance was at her benefit on 29 May, a week before his death.
In 1831, Paton divorced her husband in the Scottish court of session and in the same year she married the tenor Joseph Wood (1801–1890), with whom she had a son. In the same year she was engaged at the King's Theatre, where she sang in Rossini's La Cenerentola and other Italian operas. She then returned to Drury Lane, where she sang Alice in Henry Bishop's version of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable.
She moved with her husband to Woolley Moor, Yorkshire, in 1833. She later had three successful tours of America, making her debut at the Park Theatre, New York in 1833. She retired to a convent for a year but reappeared at the Princess's Theatre and at concerts, in which her husband was also engaged. The couple finally settled at Bulcliffe Hall, near Chapelthorpe. She died there on 21 July 1864.
Paton's sisters were also singers. Isabella made her début at Mary Ann's benefit at Covent Garden in 1824, as Letitia Hardy; Eliza sang at the Haymarket in 1833.
(from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
Provenance: Newhouse Galleries, New York stock #15407; Laurence S. Barringer and Louise D. Barringer, Airy Hall Plantation, Fenwick, Colleton County, South Carolina; Estate of Beaumont Barringer Palmer Cathcart.
Exhibited: Columbia Museum of Art (B-4, #4).