Amateur Theatre Wiki - User contributions [en]

Brandenburg House

2025-09-08T19:23:32Z

Judith Hawley: holding page

holding page

Pic Nic Society

2025-09-08T18:48:25Z

Judith Hawley: some information.

[[File:Dilettanti-theatricals- -or- a peep at the Green Room. -vide Pic-Nic orgies (BM 1868,0808.10387).jpg|thumb|653x653px|'Dilettanti Theatricals or a Peep in the Green Room - vide Pic Nic Orgies' by caricaturist James Gillray]]
[[File:The Pic-Nic Orchestra MET DP818476.jpg|thumb|Caricature titled 'The Pic-Nic Orchestra']]
[[File:Enter cowslip with a bowl of cream.- vide Brandenburg Theatricals (BM 1868,0808.6445).jpg|thumb|The Duchess of Buckinghamshire in a caricature titled 'Enter Cowslip']]
The Pic Nic Society was an elite amateur theatre society founded at the turn of the nineteenth century. The society and its members were heavily satirised by the press and in caricatures.

== Members ==
The membership of the Pic Nic Society consisted of a number of high profile aristocrats. These included Albina, Countess of Buckinghamshire and Sir Lumley Skeffington.

== Performances ==
They performed a number of plays at the Tottenham Street Theatre, London from March to December 1802. The repertoire included French plays and proverbs, British comedies, Shakespeare and possibly the first production of the ''Le Barbier de Seville'' in England.

== Caricatures ==
Besides the caricatures displayed here, the Pic Nic Society were also satirised in 'A Catalanian Pic Nic Society at Private Rehearsal' drawn by Isaac Cruikshank and published by Thomas Tegg in March 1807. The title of the piece references the Italian soprano Angelica Catalani, who made her London debut in 1806. The members of the club are depicted singing different songs alongside one another, with a final member suggesting that there is "exquisite harmony".
[[Category:Clubs, Societies and Institutions]]
[[Category:Britain]]

Strawberry Hill Theatre

2025-09-08T18:20:33Z

Judith Hawley:

For a few years at the turn of the nineteenth century, the sculptor and society hostess, Anne Seymour Damer, staged private theatricals at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. '''Strawberry Hill House'''—often called simply '''Strawberry Hill'''—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture,and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. Anne Damer inherited Strawberry Hill House from her godfather and relative, Horace Walpole.

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828)<ref>''The Register of Births & Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster Vol. IV. 1741-1760''. 30 November 1748.</ref> was an English sculptor.<ref>{{cite DNB|author=Stephen, Leslie|wstitle=Damer, Anne Seymour|volume=13|pages=450–451}}</ref> Described as a 'female genius' by [[Horace Walpole]], she was trained in sculpture by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]] and [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]]. Influenced by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], Damer was an author, traveller, theatrical producer and actress, as well as an acclaimed sculptor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Webb|first=Richard|date=2014|title=Anne Seymour Damer – Sculpture & Society|journal=The Strawberry Hill}}</ref>

During the period 1784–1818, Damer exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the [[Royal Academy]]. Her work, primarily [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]] in [[Sculpture#Neo-Classical|Neoclassical]] style, developed from early wax sculptures to technically complex ones in works in [[terracotta]], bronze and marble. Her subjects, largely drawn from friends and colleagues in Whig circles, included [[Lady Melbourne]], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], [[Joseph Banks]], [[George III]], [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], [[Charles James Fox]] and herself. She executed several actors' portraits, such as the busts of her friends [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]] (as the [[Muses]] ''[[Melpomene]]'' and ''[[Thalia (Muse)|Thalia]]'').

She produced keystone sculptures of [[Isis]] and [[Tamesis]] for each side of the central arch on the [[Henley Bridge|bridge]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Walpole|first=Horace|title=The letters of Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford, Volume 8|editor=Peter Cunningham|url=https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog|year=1891|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog/page/n595 550]–551|publisher=R. Bentley|place=London}}</ref> The original models are in the Henley Gallery of the [[River and Rowing Museum]] nearby. Another major architectural work was her 10-foot statue of [[Apollo]], now destroyed, for the frontage of [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] theatre. She also created two [[Bas-relief|bas-reliefs]] for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]] of scenes from ''[[Coriolanus]]'' and ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''.

Damer frequently appeared in Private Theatricals, including the plays performed at Richmond House organised by the Duke of Richmond from 1787. She also took an active role in the [[Pic Nic Society.]]

In 1800, she staged Arthur Murphy's comedy, ''The Old Maid'' (1761) and Henry Fielding’s ''The Intriguing Chambermaid'' (1733). In, she staged 1801 ''Fashionable Friends'', a satirical comedy written by Mary Berry. The farce was ''Lovers’ Quarrels'', based on Vanbrugh’s ''The Mistake'' (1705). Having enjoyed this event, the company immediately staged ''The Devil to Pay; or, the Wives Metamorphosed'' (1731). A three-act ballad opera by Charles Coffey (d. 1745) and John Mottley (1692-1750), adapted from Thomas Jevon's ''Devil of a Wife'' (1686).

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Sir_Joseph_Banks_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Sir Joseph Banks by Anne Seymour Damer
File:Anne_seymour_damer_coriolanus.JPG|[[Engraving]] of ''Coriolanus'' (c. 1789), one of two bas-reliefs created by Damer for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]]
File:Thames_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.JPG|Sculpture of [[Tamesis]]. Downstream [[Keystone (architecture)|keystone]] of the central arch of [[Henley Bridge]]
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer_(The_Damerian_Apollo)_1798.jpg|"The Damerian Apollo". 1798 caricature of Anne Seymour Damer chiselling the posterior of a large Apollo
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer,_by_Joshua_Reynolds_(1723-1792).jpg|Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Joshua Reynolds]] (1723–1792)
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Statue of Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]]
</gallery>

== Personal life ==
Damer's friends included a number of influential Whigs and aristocrats. Her guardian and friend Horace Walpole was a significant figure, who helped foster her career and on his death left her his London villa, [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]]. She also moved in literary and theatrical circles, where her friends included the poet and dramatist [[Joanna Baillie]], the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], and the actors [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]]. She frequently took part in [[Masque|masques]] at the [[Pantheon, London|Pantheon]] and amateur theatricals at the London residence of the [[Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond|Duke of Richmond]], who was married to her half-sister, [[Lady Mary Bruce]]<ref>''The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford'', Horace Walpole, H.G. Bohn, 1861. [https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog Internet Archive]</ref>

A number of sources have named Damer as being involved in [[lesbian]] relationships, particularly relating to her close friendship with Mary Berry, to whom she had been introduced by Walpole in 1789, and with whom she lived together in her later years. Even during her marriage, her likings for male clothing and demonstrative friendships with other women were publicly noted and satirised by hostile commentators such as [[Hester Thrale]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Oram|first1=Alison|last2=Turnbull|first2=Annmarie|title=The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex Between Women in Britain from 1780 to 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeWpYgdFWvgC&pg=PA58|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-11484-4|page=58}}</ref> and in the anonymous pamphlet ''A Sapphick Epistle from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and most Beautiful, Mrs D—'' (c. 1770).<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Alison|last=Yarrington|title=Damer, Anne Seymour (1748–1828)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7084|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7084|accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref><ref name="sapphick">Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Sapphick Epistle, 1778", Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 1 December 1999, updated 23 February 2003 <{{cite web|url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England|accessdate=16 August 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613220104/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|archivedate=13 June 2007}}> Retrieved on 16 August 2007</ref>

A romance between Damer and [[Elizabeth Farren]], who was mentioned by Thrale, is the central storyline in the 2004 novel ''Life Mask'' by [[Emma Donoghue]].<ref name="interview">{{cite web|title=Interview with Emma Donoghue, Life Mask|url=http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|work=Harcourt Trade Publishers|accessdate=16 August 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203058/http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|archivedate=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References ==
* Seewald, Jan. ''Theatrical Sculpture. Skulptierte Bildnisse berühmter englischer Schauspieler (1750–1850), insbesondere David Garrick und Sarah Siddons''. Herbert Utz Verlag, München 2007.

{{refend}}{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Anne Seymour Damer}}

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/damer_anne_seymour.html Artcyclopedia information] including links to artworks
* {{NPG name|id=01175}}
* [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01175/anne-seymour-damer-nee-conway?role=art Portraits by Anne Seymour Damer] at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1 Artwork] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205021836/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1|date=5 February 2012}} in [[Tate]], [[London]]
* [https://archive.today/20130209162958/http://wwar.com/masters/d/damer-anne_seymour.html WWAR information]
* [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer%2C+Anne+Seymour A&A art and architecture images] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204060259/http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer,+Anne+Seymour|date=4 February 2012}} including a [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/627a270d.html marble sculpture self portrait] from the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372 The Twickenham Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515232835/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372|date=15 May 2012}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516153805/http://mrsdamer.com/ Finding facts about Anne Damer 1748-1828] on MrsDamer.com

{{Authority control}}

Strawberry Hill Theatre

2025-09-08T18:08:08Z

Judith Hawley: a lot

For a few years at the turn of the nineteenth century, the sculptor and society hostess, Anne Seymour Damer, staged private theatricals at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. '''Strawberry Hill House'''—often called simply '''Strawberry Hill'''—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture,and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. Anne Damer inherited Strawberry Hill House from her godfather and relative, Horace Walpole.

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828)<ref>''The Register of Births & Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster Vol. IV. 1741-1760''. 30 November 1748.</ref> was an English sculptor.<ref>{{cite DNB|author=Stephen, Leslie|wstitle=Damer, Anne Seymour|volume=13|pages=450–451}}</ref> Described as a 'female genius' by [[Horace Walpole]], she was trained in sculpture by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]] and [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]]. Influenced by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], Damer was an author, traveller, theatrical producer and actress, as well as an acclaimed sculptor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Webb|first=Richard|date=2014|title=Anne Seymour Damer – Sculpture & Society|journal=The Strawberry Hill}}</ref>

During the period 1784–1818, Damer exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the [[Royal Academy]]. Her work, primarily [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]] in [[Sculpture#Neo-Classical|Neoclassical]] style, developed from early wax sculptures to technically complex ones in works in [[terracotta]], bronze and marble. Her subjects, largely drawn from friends and colleagues in Whig circles, included [[Lady Melbourne]], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], [[Joseph Banks]], [[George III]], [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], [[Charles James Fox]] and herself. She executed several actors' portraits, such as the busts of her friends [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]] (as the [[Muses]] ''[[Melpomene]]'' and ''[[Thalia (Muse)|Thalia]]'').

She produced keystone sculptures of [[Isis]] and [[Tamesis]] for each side of the central arch on the [[Henley Bridge|bridge]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Walpole|first=Horace|title=The letters of Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford, Volume 8|editor=Peter Cunningham|url=https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog|year=1891|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog/page/n595 550]–551|publisher=R. Bentley|place=London}}</ref> The original models are in the Henley Gallery of the [[River and Rowing Museum]] nearby. Another major architectural work was her 10-foot statue of [[Apollo]], now destroyed, for the frontage of [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] theatre. She also created two [[Bas-relief|bas-reliefs]] for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]] of scenes from ''[[Coriolanus]]'' and ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''.

Damer frequently appeared in Private Theatricals, including the plays performed at Richmond House organised by the Duke of Richmond from 1787. She also took an active role in the [[Pic Nic Society.]]

In 1800, she staged Arthur Murphy's comedy, ''The Old Maid'' (1761) and Henry Fielding’s ''The Intriguing Chambermaid'' (1733). In, she staged 1801 ''Fashionable Friends'', a satirical comedy written by Mary Berry. The farce was ''Lovers’ Quarrels'', based on Vanbrugh’s ''The Mistake'' (1705). Having enjoyed this event, the company immediately staged ''The Devil to Pay; or, the Wives Metamorphosed'' (1731). A three-act ballad opera by Charles Coffey (d. 1745) and John Mottley (1692-1750), adapted from Thomas Jevon's ''Devil of a Wife'' (1686).

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Sir_Joseph_Banks_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Sir Joseph Banks by Anne Seymour Damer
File:Anne_seymour_damer_coriolanus.JPG|[[Engraving]] of ''Coriolanus'' (c. 1789), one of two bas-reliefs created by Damer for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]]
File:Thames_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.JPG|Sculpture of [[Tamesis]]. Downstream [[Keystone (architecture)|keystone]] of the central arch of [[Henley Bridge]]
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer_(The_Damerian_Apollo)_1798.jpg|"The Damerian Apollo". 1798 caricature of Anne Seymour Damer chiselling the posterior of a large Apollo
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer,_by_Joshua_Reynolds_(1723-1792).jpg|Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Joshua Reynolds]] (1723–1792)
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Statue of Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]]
</gallery>

== Personal life ==
Damer's friends included a number of influential Whigs and aristocrats. Her guardian and friend Horace Walpole was a significant figure, who helped foster her career and on his death left her his London villa, [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]]. She also moved in literary and theatrical circles, where her friends included the poet and dramatist [[Joanna Baillie]], the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], and the actors [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]]. She frequently took part in [[Masque|masques]] at the [[Pantheon, London|Pantheon]] and amateur theatricals at the London residence of the [[Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond|Duke of Richmond]], who was married to her half-sister, [[Lady Mary Bruce]]<ref>''The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford'', Horace Walpole, H.G. Bohn, 1861. [https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog Internet Archive]</ref>

A number of sources have named Damer as being involved in [[lesbian]] relationships, particularly relating to her close friendship with Mary Berry, to whom she had been introduced by Walpole in 1789, and with whom she lived together in her later years. Even during her marriage, her likings for male clothing and demonstrative friendships with other women were publicly noted and satirised by hostile commentators such as [[Hester Thrale]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Oram|first1=Alison|last2=Turnbull|first2=Annmarie|title=The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex Between Women in Britain from 1780 to 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeWpYgdFWvgC&pg=PA58|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-11484-4|page=58}}</ref> and in the anonymous pamphlet ''A Sapphick Epistle from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and most Beautiful, Mrs D—'' (c. 1770).<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Alison|last=Yarrington|title=Damer, Anne Seymour (1748–1828)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7084|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7084|accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref><ref name="sapphick">Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Sapphick Epistle, 1778", Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 1 December 1999, updated 23 February 2003 <{{cite web|url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England|accessdate=16 August 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613220104/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|archivedate=13 June 2007}}> Retrieved on 16 August 2007</ref>

A romance between Damer and [[Elizabeth Farren]], who was mentioned by Thrale, is the central storyline in the 2004 novel ''Life Mask'' by [[Emma Donoghue]].<ref name="interview">{{cite web|title=Interview with Emma Donoghue, Life Mask|url=http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|work=Harcourt Trade Publishers|accessdate=16 August 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203058/http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|archivedate=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References ==
* Seewald, Jan. ''Theatrical Sculpture. Skulptierte Bildnisse berühmter englischer Schauspieler (1750–1850), insbesondere David Garrick und Sarah Siddons''. Herbert Utz Verlag, München 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-8316-0671-9}}.

{{refend}}{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Anne Seymour Damer}}

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/damer_anne_seymour.html Artcyclopedia information] including links to artworks
* {{NPG name|id=01175}}
* [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01175/anne-seymour-damer-nee-conway?role=art Portraits by Anne Seymour Damer] at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1 Artwork] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205021836/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1|date=5 February 2012}} in [[Tate]], [[London]]
* [https://archive.today/20130209162958/http://wwar.com/masters/d/damer-anne_seymour.html WWAR information]
* [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer%2C+Anne+Seymour A&A art and architecture images] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204060259/http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer,+Anne+Seymour|date=4 February 2012}} including a [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/627a270d.html marble sculpture self portrait] from the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372 The Twickenham Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515232835/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372|date=15 May 2012}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516153805/http://mrsdamer.com/ Finding facts about Anne Damer 1748-1828] on MrsDamer.com

{{Authority control}}

Strawberry Hill Theatre

2025-09-08T17:58:00Z

Judith Hawley:

For a few years at the turn of the nineteenth century, the sculptor and society hostess, Anne Seymour Damer, staged private theatricals at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. '''Strawberry Hill House'''—often called simply '''Strawberry Hill'''—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture,and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. Anne Damer inherited Strawberry Hill House from her godfather and relative, Horace Walpole.

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828)<ref>''The Register of Births & Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster Vol. IV. 1741-1760''. 30 November 1748.</ref> was an English sculptor.<ref>{{cite DNB|author=Stephen, Leslie|wstitle=Damer, Anne Seymour|volume=13|pages=450–451}}</ref> Described as a 'female genius' by [[Horace Walpole]], she was trained in sculpture by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]] and [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]]. Influenced by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], Damer was an author, traveller, theatrical producer and actress, as well as an acclaimed sculptor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Webb|first=Richard|date=2014|title=Anne Seymour Damer – Sculpture & Society|journal=The Strawberry Hill}}</ref>

She exhibited regularly at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]] from 1784 to 1818 and was a close friend to members of [[Georgian era|Georgian]] high society, including Horace Walpole and the politician [[Charles James Fox]]. It is possible that Damer was a [[lesbian]]. During her lifetime, rumours circulated that she was in a relationship with the actress [[Elizabeth Farren]].<ref name=":0" /> She was in a close affective relationship with the writer Mary Berry (16 March 1763 – 20 November 1852).

During the period 1784–1818, Damer exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the [[Royal Academy]]. Her work, primarily [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]] in [[Sculpture#Neo-Classical|Neoclassical]] style, developed from early wax sculptures to technically complex ones in works in [[terracotta]], bronze and marble. Her subjects, largely drawn from friends and colleagues in Whig circles, included [[Lady Melbourne]], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], [[Joseph Banks]], [[George III]], [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], [[Charles James Fox]] and herself. She executed several actors' portraits, such as the busts of her friends [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]] (as the [[Muses]] ''[[Melpomene]]'' and ''[[Thalia (Muse)|Thalia]]'').

She produced keystone sculptures of [[Isis]] and [[Tamesis]] for each side of the central arch on the [[Henley Bridge|bridge]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Walpole|first=Horace|title=The letters of Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford, Volume 8|editor=Peter Cunningham|url=https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog|year=1891|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog/page/n595 550]–551|publisher=R. Bentley|place=London}}</ref> The original models are in the Henley Gallery of the [[River and Rowing Museum]] nearby. Another major architectural work was her 10-foot statue of [[Apollo]], now destroyed, for the frontage of [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] theatre. She also created two [[Bas-relief|bas-reliefs]] for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]] of scenes from ''[[Coriolanus]]'' and ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''.

Damer frequently appeared in Private Theatricals, including the plays performed at Richmond House and took an active role in the Pic Nic Society.

•1800 Arthur Murphy, ''The Old Maid'' (1761) and Henry Fielding’s ''The Intriguing Chambermaid'' (1733).

•1801 ''Fashionable Friends'', a satirical comedy written by Anne Damer’s friend, Mary Berry and ''Lovers’ Quarrels'', based on Vanbrugh’s ''The Mistake'' (1705)

•1801 ''The Devil to Pay; or, the Wives Metamorphosed'' (1731). A three-act ballad opera by Charles Coffey (d. 1745) and John Mottley (1692-1750), adapted from Thomas Jevon's ''Devil of a Wife'' (1686).

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Sir_Joseph_Banks_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Sir Joseph Banks by Anne Seymour Damer
File:Anne_seymour_damer_coriolanus.JPG|[[Engraving]] of ''Coriolanus'' (c. 1789), one of two bas-reliefs created by Damer for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]]
File:Thames_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.JPG|Sculpture of [[Tamesis]]. Downstream [[Keystone (architecture)|keystone]] of the central arch of [[Henley Bridge]]
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer_(The_Damerian_Apollo)_1798.jpg|"The Damerian Apollo". 1798 caricature of Anne Seymour Damer chiselling the posterior of a large Apollo
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer,_by_Joshua_Reynolds_(1723-1792).jpg|Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Joshua Reynolds]] (1723–1792)
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Statue of Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]]
</gallery>

== Personal life ==
Damer's friends included a number of influential Whigs and aristocrats. Her guardian and friend Horace Walpole was a significant figure, who helped foster her career and on his death left her his London villa, [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]]. She also moved in literary and theatrical circles, where her friends included the poet and dramatist [[Joanna Baillie]], the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], and the actors [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]]. She frequently took part in [[Masque|masques]] at the [[Pantheon, London|Pantheon]] and amateur theatricals at the London residence of the [[Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond|Duke of Richmond]], who was married to her half-sister, [[Lady Mary Bruce]]<ref>''The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford'', Horace Walpole, H.G. Bohn, 1861. [https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog Internet Archive]</ref>

A number of sources have named Damer as being involved in [[lesbian]] relationships, particularly relating to her close friendship with Mary Berry, to whom she had been introduced by Walpole in 1789, and with whom she lived together in her later years. Even during her marriage, her likings for male clothing and demonstrative friendships with other women were publicly noted and satirised by hostile commentators such as [[Hester Thrale]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Oram|first1=Alison|last2=Turnbull|first2=Annmarie|title=The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex Between Women in Britain from 1780 to 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeWpYgdFWvgC&pg=PA58|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-11484-4|page=58}}</ref> and in the anonymous pamphlet ''A Sapphick Epistle from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and most Beautiful, Mrs D—'' (c. 1770).<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Alison|last=Yarrington|title=Damer, Anne Seymour (1748–1828)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7084|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7084|accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref><ref name="sapphick">Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Sapphick Epistle, 1778", Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 1 December 1999, updated 23 February 2003 <{{cite web|url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England|accessdate=16 August 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613220104/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|archivedate=13 June 2007}}> Retrieved on 16 August 2007</ref>

A romance between Damer and [[Elizabeth Farren]], who was mentioned by Thrale, is the central storyline in the 2004 novel ''Life Mask'' by [[Emma Donoghue]].<ref name="interview">{{cite web|title=Interview with Emma Donoghue, Life Mask|url=http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|work=Harcourt Trade Publishers|accessdate=16 August 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203058/http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|archivedate=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References ==
* Seewald, Jan. ''Theatrical Sculpture. Skulptierte Bildnisse berühmter englischer Schauspieler (1750–1850), insbesondere David Garrick und Sarah Siddons''. Herbert Utz Verlag, München 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-8316-0671-9}}.

{{refend}}{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Anne Seymour Damer}}

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/damer_anne_seymour.html Artcyclopedia information] including links to artworks
* {{NPG name|id=01175}}
* [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01175/anne-seymour-damer-nee-conway?role=art Portraits by Anne Seymour Damer] at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1 Artwork] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205021836/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1|date=5 February 2012}} in [[Tate]], [[London]]
* [https://archive.today/20130209162958/http://wwar.com/masters/d/damer-anne_seymour.html WWAR information]
* [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer%2C+Anne+Seymour A&A art and architecture images] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204060259/http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer,+Anne+Seymour|date=4 February 2012}} including a [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/627a270d.html marble sculpture self portrait] from the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372 The Twickenham Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515232835/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372|date=15 May 2012}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516153805/http://mrsdamer.com/ Finding facts about Anne Damer 1748-1828] on MrsDamer.com

{{Authority control}}

Strawberry Hill Theatre

2025-09-08T17:35:24Z

Judith Hawley: cleaned up wikipedia paste

For a few years at the turn of the nineteenth century, the sculptor and society hostess, Anne Seymour Damer (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828), staged private theatricals at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. '''Strawberry Hill House'''—often called simply '''Strawberry Hill'''—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture,and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. Anne Damer inherited Strawberry Hill House from her godfather and relative, Horace Walpole. Walpole described her as a 'female genius' because of her accomplishments as a sculptor. She was also an author, traveller and frequently acted in private theatricals.

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' was an English sculptor. Described by Horace Walpole, she was trained in sculpture by Giuseppe Ceracchi and John Bacon. Influenced by the Enlightenment, Damer was an , as well as an acclaimed sculptor.

She exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1818 and was a close friend to members of Georgian high society, including Horace Walpole and the politician Charles James Fox. It is believed that Damer was a lesbian and was in a relationship with the actress Elizabeth Farren.

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828)<ref>''The Register of Births & Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster Vol. IV. 1741-1760''. 30 November 1748.</ref> was an English sculptor.<ref>{{cite DNB|author=Stephen, Leslie|wstitle=Damer, Anne Seymour|volume=13|pages=450–451}}</ref> Described as a 'female genius' by [[Horace Walpole]], she was trained in sculpture by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]] and [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]]. Influenced by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], Damer was an author, traveller, theatrical producer and actress, as well as an acclaimed sculptor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Webb|first=Richard|date=2014|title=Anne Seymour Damer – Sculpture & Society|journal=The Strawberry Hill}}</ref>

She exhibited regularly at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]] from 1784 to 1818 and was a close friend to members of [[Georgian era|Georgian]] high society, including Horace Walpole and the politician [[Charles James Fox]]. It is believed that Damer was a [[lesbian]] and was in a relationship with the actress [[Elizabeth Farren]].<ref name=":0" />

== Life ==
Anne Seymour Conway was born in [[Sevenoaks]] into an aristocratic [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] family. She was the only daughter of Field-Marshal [[Henry Seymour Conway]] (1721–1795) and his wife Lady Caroline Bruce, born Campbell, Lady Ailesbury (1721–1803). Her father was a nephew of [[Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford|Robert Walpole]], Britain's first [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]].<ref name=":0" /> Walpole's son, [[Horace Walpole]], was her godfather, and Anne spent much of her childhood in his home in Strawberry Hill.<ref name=":0" /> Her mother was the daughter of the [[John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll|Duke of Argyll]]. She was brought up at the family home at [[Park Place (Berkshire)|Park Place]] in [[Berkshire]]. She was highly educated and taught at home.<ref name=":0" /> By the time she was seventeen, she was introduced into society.

In 1766 at the age of 17, Damer was sketched by [[Angelica Kauffman]] in the character of the goddess [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], a work now held at [[St Mary's University, Twickenham]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1800, an unknown artist (possibly Kauffman) completed a painting with the same composition as the sketch. The painting preceded Damer's launch into Society and her entrance into the marriage market.<ref name=":0" />

In 1767 she married [[John Damer]], the son of Lord Milton, later the [[Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester|1st Earl of Dorchester]]. The couple received an income of £5,000 from Lord Milton, and were left large fortunes by Milton and Henry Conway.<ref name="leednb">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Conway, Henry Seymour|volume=12}}</ref> Damer was described as a poor businessman, who had a taste for expensive clothing. The marriage was not a successful one. The couple had no children and separated after seven years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/anne-seymour-damer|title=Anne Seymour Damer|author=|date=|website=London Remembers|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2025|quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O8865/mrs-freeman-as-isis-bust-damer-anne-seymour/|title=Mrs Freeman as Isis|author=|date=|website=V&A Museum|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2025|quote=}}</ref>

In 1775, Anne was included in a painting titled ''The Three Witches from Macbeth'' by [[Daniel Gardner]] ({{c.}} 1750 – 1805), which can be found in the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]. The work shows her next to other ladies of high society: [[Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne]] and [[Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire]].<ref name=":0" />
[[File:The_Three_Witches_from_Shakespeares_Macbeth_by_Daniel_Gardner,_1775.jpg|right|thumb|Anne Damer with the [[Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire|Duchess of Devonshire]] and [[Lady Melbourne]] in ''Witches Round the Cauldron'' by [[Daniel Gardner]] (1775)]]
Damer's husband died by suicide in 1776, leaving considerable debts. As a widow, Damer benefitted from a prenuptial agreement whereby her father-in-law was obliged to pay her £2500 a year. This money allowed her to be financially independent, and continue her artistic career, whilst maintaining a full social life, on a more intellectual plane than that of her earlier married years.<ref name=":0" />

Damer was a frequent visitor to Europe. In 1779, she had watched from the deck, a four-hour running gunfight between a French [[privateer]] and the cross-Channel [[packet boat]] on which she was travelling.<ref name=":0" /> During one voyage she was captured by a privateer, but released unharmed in [[Jersey]]. In 1790–91, she travelled alone through Portugal and Spain and back through [[revolutionary France]]. She visited Sir [[Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet|Horace Mann]] in [[Florence]], and Sir [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|William Hamilton]] in [[Naples]], where she was introduced to [[Lord Nelson]].

In 1801, she published a novel, ''[[Belmour]]'', a book she had written in [[Lisbon]]. It ran to three editions and was translated into French.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|title=Belmour: a novel, Volume 1|last=Damer|first=Anne Seymour|year=1827|publisher=H. Colburn|location=London|pages=335|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stcsAAAAYAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Belmour: a novel, Volume 2|last=Damer|first=Anne Seymour|year=1827|publisher=H. Colburn|location=London|pages=349|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftcsAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> In 1802, while the [[Treaty of Amiens]] was in effect, she visited Paris with the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]] and was granted an audience with [[Napoleon]].

A fluent French speaker, Damer became friends with [[Josephine Buonaparte]]. They corresponded about gardening and plants, mostly in connection to Josephine's garden at Malmaison. Anne had also discussed this with Sir [[Joseph Banks]], one of the founders of the [[Royal Horticultural Society]]. A sculptural bust she made of Banks can be found in the [[British Museum]]. In 1815, she travelled to [[Elba]], the island where Napoleon had been exiled. She travelled there despite the ongoing war between France and Britain. The Emperor gifted her a [[snuff box]] featuring his portrait, which is housed in the British Museum.<ref name=":0" />

When Horace Walpole died in 1797, he left a life interest in Strawberry Hill to Damer. She had the job of recording the contents of Strawberry Hill for the Berry family, who had moved into an adjoining property. Anne used Strawberry Hill as her country house until 1811, which she maintained alongside her central London home in Upper [[Brook Street]]. In 1818, she returned to Twickenham, buying [[York House, Twickenham|York House]].

From 1818, Anne Damer lived at [[York House, Twickenham]]. She continued to sculpt until the end of her life. She died, aged 79, in 1828 at her London house, 27 Upper Brook Street, [[Grosvenor Square]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wheatley|first1=Henry Benjamin|title=London, Past and Present|date=1881|publisher=Murray|location=London|page=283|authorlink=Henry B. Wheatley}}</ref> She was buried in [[St Mary's Church, Sundridge|the church at Sundridge, Kent]].

According to Richard Webb, she directed in her will that her correspondence be destroyed and that she be buried with the bones of her dog and her sculpting tools.<ref name=":0" />

== Works ==
The development of Anne Seymour Damer's interest in sculpture is credited to [[David Hume]] (who served as Under-Secretary when her father was [[Secretary of State for the Northern Department|Secretary of State]], 1766–1768) and to the encouragement of [[Horace Walpole]], who was her guardian during her parents' frequent trips abroad. According to Walpole, her training included lessons in modelling from [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]], in marble carving from [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]], and in anatomy from [[William Cumberland Cruikshank]].

During the period 1784–1818, Damer exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the [[Royal Academy]]. Her work, primarily [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]] in [[Sculpture#Neo-Classical|Neoclassical]] style, developed from early wax sculptures to technically complex ones in works in [[terracotta]], bronze and marble. Her subjects, largely drawn from friends and colleagues in Whig circles, included [[Lady Melbourne]], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], [[Joseph Banks]], [[George III]], [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], [[Charles James Fox]] and herself. She executed several actors' portraits, such as the busts of her friends [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]] (as the [[Muses]] ''[[Melpomene]]'' and ''[[Thalia (Muse)|Thalia]]'').

She produced keystone sculptures of [[Isis]] and [[Tamesis]] for each side of the central arch on the [[Henley Bridge|bridge]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Walpole|first=Horace|title=The letters of Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford, Volume 8|editor=Peter Cunningham|url=https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog|year=1891|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog/page/n595 550]–551|publisher=R. Bentley|place=London}}</ref> The original models are in the Henley Gallery of the [[River and Rowing Museum]] nearby. Another major architectural work was her 10-foot statue of [[Apollo]], now destroyed, for the frontage of [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] theatre. She also created two [[Bas-relief|bas-reliefs]] for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]] of scenes from ''[[Coriolanus]]'' and ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Sir_Joseph_Banks_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Sir Joseph Banks by Anne Seymour Damer
File:Anne_seymour_damer_coriolanus.JPG|[[Engraving]] of ''Coriolanus'' (c. 1789), one of two bas-reliefs created by Damer for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]]
File:Thames_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.JPG|Sculpture of [[Tamesis]]. Downstream [[Keystone (architecture)|keystone]] of the central arch of [[Henley Bridge]]
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer_(The_Damerian_Apollo)_1798.jpg|"The Damerian Apollo". 1798 caricature of Anne Seymour Damer chiselling the posterior of a large Apollo
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer,_by_Joshua_Reynolds_(1723-1792).jpg|Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Joshua Reynolds]] (1723–1792)
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Statue of Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]]
</gallery>

== Personal life ==
Damer's friends included a number of influential Whigs and aristocrats. Her guardian and friend Horace Walpole was a significant figure, who helped foster her career and on his death left her his London villa, [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]]. She also moved in literary and theatrical circles, where her friends included the poet and dramatist [[Joanna Baillie]], the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], and the actors [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]]. She frequently took part in [[Masque|masques]] at the [[Pantheon, London|Pantheon]] and amateur theatricals at the London residence of the [[Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond|Duke of Richmond]], who was married to her half-sister, [[Lady Mary Bruce]]<ref>''The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford'', Horace Walpole, H.G. Bohn, 1861. [https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog Internet Archive]</ref>

A number of sources have named Damer as being involved in [[lesbian]] relationships, particularly relating to her close friendship with Mary Berry, to whom she had been introduced by Walpole in 1789, and with whom she lived together in her later years. Even during her marriage, her likings for male clothing and demonstrative friendships with other women were publicly noted and satirised by hostile commentators such as [[Hester Thrale]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Oram|first1=Alison|last2=Turnbull|first2=Annmarie|title=The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex Between Women in Britain from 1780 to 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeWpYgdFWvgC&pg=PA58|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-11484-4|page=58}}</ref> and in the anonymous pamphlet ''A Sapphick Epistle from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and most Beautiful, Mrs D—'' (c. 1770).<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Alison|last=Yarrington|title=Damer, Anne Seymour (1748–1828)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7084|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7084|accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref><ref name="sapphick">Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Sapphick Epistle, 1778", Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 1 December 1999, updated 23 February 2003 <{{cite web|url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England|accessdate=16 August 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613220104/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|archivedate=13 June 2007}}> Retrieved on 16 August 2007</ref>

A romance between Damer and [[Elizabeth Farren]], who was mentioned by Thrale, is the central storyline in the 2004 novel ''Life Mask'' by [[Emma Donoghue]].<ref name="interview">{{cite web|title=Interview with Emma Donoghue, Life Mask|url=http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|work=Harcourt Trade Publishers|accessdate=16 August 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203058/http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|archivedate=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References ==
* Seewald, Jan. ''Theatrical Sculpture. Skulptierte Bildnisse berühmter englischer Schauspieler (1750–1850), insbesondere David Garrick und Sarah Siddons''. Herbert Utz Verlag, München 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-8316-0671-9}}.

{{refend}}{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Anne Seymour Damer}}

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/damer_anne_seymour.html Artcyclopedia information] including links to artworks
* {{NPG name|id=01175}}
* [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01175/anne-seymour-damer-nee-conway?role=art Portraits by Anne Seymour Damer] at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1 Artwork] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205021836/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1|date=5 February 2012}} in [[Tate]], [[London]]
* [https://archive.today/20130209162958/http://wwar.com/masters/d/damer-anne_seymour.html WWAR information]
* [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer%2C+Anne+Seymour A&A art and architecture images] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204060259/http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer,+Anne+Seymour|date=4 February 2012}} including a [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/627a270d.html marble sculpture self portrait] from the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372 The Twickenham Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515232835/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372|date=15 May 2012}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516153805/http://mrsdamer.com/ Finding facts about Anne Damer 1748-1828] on MrsDamer.com

{{Authority control}}

Strawberry Hill Theatre

2025-09-08T17:33:31Z

Judith Hawley: added content on ASD from wikipedia

For a few years at the turn of the nineteenth century, the sculptor and society hostess, Anne Seymour Damer (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828), staged private theatricals at Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham. '''Strawberry Hill House'''—often called simply '''Strawberry Hill'''—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture,and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. Anne Damer inherited Strawberry Hill House from her godfather and relative, Horace Walpole. Walpole described her as a 'female genius' because of her accomplishments as a sculptor. She was also an author, traveller and frequently acted in private theatricals.

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' was an English sculptor. Described by Horace Walpole, she was trained in sculpture by Giuseppe Ceracchi and John Bacon. Influenced by the Enlightenment, Damer was an , as well as an acclaimed sculptor.

She exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1818 and was a close friend to members of Georgian high society, including Horace Walpole and the politician Charles James Fox. It is believed that Damer was a lesbian and was in a relationship with the actress Elizabeth Farren.

{{Short description|British sculptor (1748–1828)}} {{Other people|Anne Seymour}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Anne Seymour Damer self-portrait.JPG
| alt =
| caption = Anne Seymour Damer's self-portrait [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] at the Vasari Corridor of the [[Uffizi gallery]]<br>The Greek inscription reads:<br>ΑΝΝΑ ΣΕΙΜΟΡΙΣ ΔΑΜΕΡ Η ΕΚ ΤΗΣ ΒΡΕΤΤΑΝΙΚΗΣ ΑΥΤΗ ΑΥΤΗΝ ΕΠΟΙΕΙ<br>("Anne Seymour Damer from Britain, made herself")
| birth_name = Anne Seymour Conway
| birth_date = {{birth date|1748|10|26|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sevenoaks]], [[Kent]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1828|5|28|1748|11|8|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Mayfair, London]], England
| resting_place = [[St Mary's Church, Sundridge|St Mary, Church Road, Sundridge, Kent]]
}}

'''Anne Seymour Damer''' (née Conway; 26 October 1748 – 28 May 1828)<ref>''The Register of Births & Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster Vol. IV. 1741-1760''. 30 November 1748.</ref> was an English sculptor.<ref>{{cite DNB|author=Stephen, Leslie|wstitle=Damer, Anne Seymour|volume=13|pages=450–451}}</ref> Described as a 'female genius' by [[Horace Walpole]], she was trained in sculpture by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]] and [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]]. Influenced by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], Damer was an author, traveller, theatrical producer and actress, as well as an acclaimed sculptor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Webb|first=Richard|date=2014|title=Anne Seymour Damer – Sculpture & Society|journal=The Strawberry Hill}}</ref>

She exhibited regularly at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]] from 1784 to 1818 and was a close friend to members of [[Georgian era|Georgian]] high society, including Horace Walpole and the politician [[Charles James Fox]]. It is believed that Damer was a [[lesbian]] and was in a relationship with the actress [[Elizabeth Farren]].<ref name=":0" />

== Life ==
Anne Seymour Conway was born in [[Sevenoaks]] into an aristocratic [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] family. She was the only daughter of Field-Marshal [[Henry Seymour Conway]] (1721–1795) and his wife Lady Caroline Bruce, born Campbell, Lady Ailesbury (1721–1803). Her father was a nephew of [[Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford|Robert Walpole]], Britain's first [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]].<ref name=":0" /> Walpole's son, [[Horace Walpole]], was her godfather, and Anne spent much of her childhood in his home in Strawberry Hill.<ref name=":0" /> Her mother was the daughter of the [[John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll|Duke of Argyll]]. She was brought up at the family home at [[Park Place (Berkshire)|Park Place]] in [[Berkshire]]. She was highly educated and taught at home.<ref name=":0" /> By the time she was seventeen, she was introduced into society.

In 1766 at the age of 17, Damer was sketched by [[Angelica Kauffman]] in the character of the goddess [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], a work now held at [[St Mary's University, Twickenham]].<ref name=":0" /> In 1800, an unknown artist (possibly Kauffman) completed a painting with the same composition as the sketch. The painting preceded Damer's launch into Society and her entrance into the marriage market.<ref name=":0" />

In 1767 she married [[John Damer]], the son of Lord Milton, later the [[Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester|1st Earl of Dorchester]]. The couple received an income of £5,000 from Lord Milton, and were left large fortunes by Milton and Henry Conway.<ref name="leednb">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Conway, Henry Seymour|volume=12}}</ref> Damer was described as a poor businessman, who had a taste for expensive clothing. The marriage was not a successful one. The couple had no children and separated after seven years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/anne-seymour-damer|title=Anne Seymour Damer|author=|date=|website=London Remembers|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2025|quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O8865/mrs-freeman-as-isis-bust-damer-anne-seymour/|title=Mrs Freeman as Isis|author=|date=|website=V&A Museum|publisher=|access-date=July 22, 2025|quote=}}</ref>

In 1775, Anne was included in a painting titled ''The Three Witches from Macbeth'' by [[Daniel Gardner]] ({{c.}} 1750 – 1805), which can be found in the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]. The work shows her next to other ladies of high society: [[Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne]] and [[Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire]].<ref name=":0" />
[[File:The_Three_Witches_from_Shakespeares_Macbeth_by_Daniel_Gardner,_1775.jpg|right|thumb|Anne Damer with the [[Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire|Duchess of Devonshire]] and [[Lady Melbourne]] in ''Witches Round the Cauldron'' by [[Daniel Gardner]] (1775)]]
Damer's husband died by suicide in 1776, leaving considerable debts. As a widow, Damer benefitted from a prenuptial agreement whereby her father-in-law was obliged to pay her £2500 a year. This money allowed her to be financially independent, and continue her artistic career, whilst maintaining a full social life, on a more intellectual plane than that of her earlier married years.<ref name=":0" />

Damer was a frequent visitor to Europe. In 1779, she had watched from the deck, a four-hour running gunfight between a French [[privateer]] and the cross-Channel [[packet boat]] on which she was travelling.<ref name=":0" /> During one voyage she was captured by a privateer, but released unharmed in [[Jersey]]. In 1790–91, she travelled alone through Portugal and Spain and back through [[revolutionary France]]. She visited Sir [[Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet|Horace Mann]] in [[Florence]], and Sir [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|William Hamilton]] in [[Naples]], where she was introduced to [[Lord Nelson]].

In 1801, she published a novel, ''[[Belmour]]'', a book she had written in [[Lisbon]]. It ran to three editions and was translated into French.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|title=Belmour: a novel, Volume 1|last=Damer|first=Anne Seymour|year=1827|publisher=H. Colburn|location=London|pages=335|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stcsAAAAYAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Belmour: a novel, Volume 2|last=Damer|first=Anne Seymour|year=1827|publisher=H. Colburn|location=London|pages=349|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ftcsAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> In 1802, while the [[Treaty of Amiens]] was in effect, she visited Paris with the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]] and was granted an audience with [[Napoleon]].

A fluent French speaker, Damer became friends with [[Josephine Buonaparte]]. They corresponded about gardening and plants, mostly in connection to Josephine's garden at Malmaison. Anne had also discussed this with Sir [[Joseph Banks]], one of the founders of the [[Royal Horticultural Society]]. A sculptural bust she made of Banks can be found in the [[British Museum]]. In 1815, she travelled to [[Elba]], the island where Napoleon had been exiled. She travelled there despite the ongoing war between France and Britain. The Emperor gifted her a [[snuff box]] featuring his portrait, which is housed in the British Museum.<ref name=":0" />

When Horace Walpole died in 1797, he left a life interest in Strawberry Hill to Damer. She had the job of recording the contents of Strawberry Hill for the Berry family, who had moved into an adjoining property. Anne used Strawberry Hill as her country house until 1811, which she maintained alongside her central London home in Upper [[Brook Street]]. In 1818, she returned to Twickenham, buying [[York House, Twickenham|York House]].

From 1818, Anne Damer lived at [[York House, Twickenham]]. She continued to sculpt until the end of her life. She died, aged 79, in 1828 at her London house, 27 Upper Brook Street, [[Grosvenor Square]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wheatley|first1=Henry Benjamin|title=London, Past and Present|date=1881|publisher=Murray|location=London|page=283|authorlink=Henry B. Wheatley}}</ref> She was buried in [[St Mary's Church, Sundridge|the church at Sundridge, Kent]].

According to Richard Webb, she directed in her will that her correspondence be destroyed and that she be buried with the bones of her dog and her sculpting tools.<ref name=":0" />

== Works ==
The development of Anne Seymour Damer's interest in sculpture is credited to [[David Hume]] (who served as Under-Secretary when her father was [[Secretary of State for the Northern Department|Secretary of State]], 1766–1768) and to the encouragement of [[Horace Walpole]], who was her guardian during her parents' frequent trips abroad. According to Walpole, her training included lessons in modelling from [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]], in marble carving from [[John Bacon (sculptor, born 1740)|John Bacon]], and in anatomy from [[William Cumberland Cruikshank]].

During the period 1784–1818, Damer exhibited 32 works as an honorary exhibitor at the [[Royal Academy]]. Her work, primarily [[Bust (sculpture)|busts]] in [[Sculpture#Neo-Classical|Neoclassical]] style, developed from early wax sculptures to technically complex ones in works in [[terracotta]], bronze and marble. Her subjects, largely drawn from friends and colleagues in Whig circles, included [[Lady Melbourne]], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], [[Joseph Banks]], [[George III]], [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], [[Charles James Fox]] and herself. She executed several actors' portraits, such as the busts of her friends [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]] (as the [[Muses]] ''[[Melpomene]]'' and ''[[Thalia (Muse)|Thalia]]'').

She produced keystone sculptures of [[Isis]] and [[Tamesis]] for each side of the central arch on the [[Henley Bridge|bridge]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Walpole|first=Horace|title=The letters of Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Orford, Volume 8|editor=Peter Cunningham|url=https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog|year=1891|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog/page/n595 550]–551|publisher=R. Bentley|place=London}}</ref> The original models are in the Henley Gallery of the [[River and Rowing Museum]] nearby. Another major architectural work was her 10-foot statue of [[Apollo]], now destroyed, for the frontage of [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] theatre. She also created two [[Bas-relief|bas-reliefs]] for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]] of scenes from ''[[Coriolanus]]'' and ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]''.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Sir_Joseph_Banks_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Sir Joseph Banks by Anne Seymour Damer
File:Anne_seymour_damer_coriolanus.JPG|[[Engraving]] of ''Coriolanus'' (c. 1789), one of two bas-reliefs created by Damer for the [[Boydell Shakespeare Gallery]]
File:Thames_by_Anne_Seymour_Damer.JPG|Sculpture of [[Tamesis]]. Downstream [[Keystone (architecture)|keystone]] of the central arch of [[Henley Bridge]]
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer_(The_Damerian_Apollo)_1798.jpg|"The Damerian Apollo". 1798 caricature of Anne Seymour Damer chiselling the posterior of a large Apollo
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer,_by_Joshua_Reynolds_(1723-1792).jpg|Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Joshua Reynolds]] (1723–1792)
File:Anne_Seymour_Damer.jpg|Statue of Anne Seymour Damer, by [[Giuseppe Ceracchi]]
</gallery>

== Personal life ==
Damer's friends included a number of influential Whigs and aristocrats. Her guardian and friend Horace Walpole was a significant figure, who helped foster her career and on his death left her his London villa, [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]]. She also moved in literary and theatrical circles, where her friends included the poet and dramatist [[Joanna Baillie]], the author [[Mary Berry (writer, born 1763)|Mary Berry]], and the actors [[Sarah Siddons]] and [[Elizabeth Farren]]. She frequently took part in [[Masque|masques]] at the [[Pantheon, London|Pantheon]] and amateur theatricals at the London residence of the [[Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond|Duke of Richmond]], who was married to her half-sister, [[Lady Mary Bruce]]<ref>''The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford'', Horace Walpole, H.G. Bohn, 1861. [https://archive.org/details/lettershoracewa24walpgoog Internet Archive]</ref>

A number of sources have named Damer as being involved in [[lesbian]] relationships, particularly relating to her close friendship with Mary Berry, to whom she had been introduced by Walpole in 1789, and with whom she lived together in her later years. Even during her marriage, her likings for male clothing and demonstrative friendships with other women were publicly noted and satirised by hostile commentators such as [[Hester Thrale]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Oram|first1=Alison|last2=Turnbull|first2=Annmarie|title=The Lesbian History Sourcebook: Love and Sex Between Women in Britain from 1780 to 1970|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KeWpYgdFWvgC&pg=PA58|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-11484-4|page=58}}</ref> and in the anonymous pamphlet ''A Sapphick Epistle from Jack Cavendish to the Honourable and most Beautiful, Mrs D—'' (c. 1770).<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Alison|last=Yarrington|title=Damer, Anne Seymour (1748–1828)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/7084|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7084|accessdate=16 August 2007}}</ref><ref name="sapphick">Rictor Norton (Ed.), "A Sapphick Epistle, 1778", Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. 1 December 1999, updated 23 February 2003 <{{cite web|url=http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|title=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England|accessdate=16 August 2007|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613220104/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/sapphick.htm|archivedate=13 June 2007}}> Retrieved on 16 August 2007</ref>

A romance between Damer and [[Elizabeth Farren]], who was mentioned by Thrale, is the central storyline in the 2004 novel ''Life Mask'' by [[Emma Donoghue]].<ref name="interview">{{cite web|title=Interview with Emma Donoghue, Life Mask|url=http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|work=Harcourt Trade Publishers|accessdate=16 August 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203058/http://www.harcourtbooks.com/AuthorInterviews/bookinterview_Donoghue.asp|archivedate=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References ==
{{refbegin}}

* Seewald, Jan. ''Theatrical Sculpture. Skulptierte Bildnisse berühmter englischer Schauspieler (1750–1850), insbesondere David Garrick und Sarah Siddons''. Herbert Utz Verlag, München 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-8316-0671-9}}.

{{refend}}{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Anne Seymour Damer}}

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/damer_anne_seymour.html Artcyclopedia information] including links to artworks
* {{NPG name|id=01175}}
* [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp01175/anne-seymour-damer-nee-conway?role=art Portraits by Anne Seymour Damer] at the [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1 Artwork] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205021836/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2553&page=1|date=5 February 2012}} in [[Tate]], [[London]]
* [https://archive.today/20130209162958/http://wwar.com/masters/d/damer-anne_seymour.html WWAR information]
* [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer%2C+Anne+Seymour A&A art and architecture images] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204060259/http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/search/results.html?_creators=ULANWITT%2F9337&display=Damer,+Anne+Seymour|date=4 February 2012}} including a [http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/conway/627a270d.html marble sculpture self portrait] from the [[Courtauld Institute of Art]]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372 The Twickenham Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515232835/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=372|date=15 May 2012}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130516153805/http://mrsdamer.com/ Finding facts about Anne Damer 1748-1828] on MrsDamer.com

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