Samuel De Wilde (1751 - 1832)
RA Collection: Art
A portrait head of 'Rajah Rammohan Roy', in profile. Raja Ram Mohun Roy (1772-1833) was a Hindu social reformer from Bengal who visited Manchester, Liverpool and London from 1830, dying of meningitis near Bristol in 1833.
According to the inscription in the artist's hand, this drawing dates from 1826 so must either have been drawn in India or copied from another image.
There is a similar watercolour by an unknown artist in the NPG collection showing Ram Mohun Roy in profile and dated 1833
This work comes from one of sixteen volumes of Royal Academy Annual Exhibition catalogues that were collected and extra-illustrated by the lawyer and antiquarian Edward Basil Jupp F.S.A. (1812 - 1877). The catalogues span the period from the first annual exhibition in 1769 up to 1875. Jupp added drawings, prints, letters and autographs by, or referring to, Academicians and other exhibitors at the Academy's annual exhibition.
E.B. Jupp was a solicitor who married Eliza Kay, daughter of the architect William Porden Kay. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a clerk of the Carpenters' Company, of which he published a history. Jupp amassed a large collection of paintings by British and Dutch artists, drawings, prints, books and porcelain most of which was sold after his death, at Christie's in February 1878.
Many of the drawings in Jupp's Royal Academy extra-illustrated volumes were bought from art sales during the 1860s. He was also acquainted with a number of contemporary artists and several drawings in the later volumes (along with many of the letters and autographs) were sent from the artists themselves.
107 mm x 99 mm