London:: Henry Colburn And Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street., 1830.
Physical Description
[4], 328 p., frontis. (port.); 195 mm. (Octavo.)
General Note
Contents
[Half-t., frontis., t.p.] - [Text]; [colophon].
Responsibility Note
The frontispiece portrait is captioned, 'James Northcote Esq. R.A. in his 82nd. Year. Engraved by T. Wright after a drawing by A. Wivell.'
It carries the publishers' imprint of 'Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830.'
On the verso of the title page and again in the colophon is printed, 'C. Whiting, Beaufort House, Strand.'
References
A.C. Grayling, The quarrel of the age: the life and times of William Hazlitt (2000); J. Simon, 'James Northcote's account book 1770-1830', in Walpole Society, 58 (1996), p.21-125; S. Jones, Hazlitt (1989); E. Fletcher, ed., Conversations of James Northcote R.A. with James Ward (1901).
Summary Note
Northcote had published several articles and memoirs himself, before Hazlitt's vivid accounts of his conversations appeared in various journals between 1826 and 1829 and in the present volume. The revelation of some of his derogatory speculations about artists and others is said to have annoyed Northcote; but the Conversations probably do provide some accurate information on the artists of Britain in the age of Reynolds and Lawrence. Unfortunately the publication contains no index.
Reproductions
The Conversations were edited by F. Swinnerton (1949), and by A.R. Waller and A. Glover in The Collected works of William Hazlitt, vol. 6 (1903).
Binding Note
19th-century quarter red morocco, red cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Northcote's Conversations' and 'R.A.'