Few artists' reputations have suffered such a rapid reversal of fortune as that of Charles Jervas. Much praised, and patronised, during his lifetime, he was just as frequently disparaged after his death; Sir Joshua Reynolds, for example, when asked by his sister why so few pictures by Jervas were to be seen, replied "because they are all up in the garret".
Similarly, Horace Walpole, whose judgement in aesthetic matters could best be described as variable, dismissed the Irish artist's paintings as "wretched daubings". The latter summary, as even a cursory examination of Jervas's work will show, was no more than a gratuitous insult (of the kind in which Walpole specialised). The painter's contemporaries held him in much higher esteem, as his distinguished list of sitters proves. Dean Swift, for example, commissioned two portraits from him, one in London in 1709 and another in Dublin seven years later.
Alexander Pope was painted by Jervas several times and, in return, extravagantly praised his friend. In July 1916, for example, when the artist was in Ireland, Pope wrote begging him to return to England, remarking "Everyone here has great need of you. Many faces have died forever for want of your pencil and blooming Ladies have wither'd in expecting your return." In fact, Jervas spent much of his time between the two countries, in both of which his services were much in demand. He was born in Shinrone, Co Offaly around 1675 but at a relatively young age moved to London where he studied at Sir Godfrey Kneller's Academy and began to copy old masters; in 1698, for example, he made copies of Raphael's Cartoons for an Oxford scholar, Dr George Clark, who then lent Jervas money to go to Italy so that he could improve the quality of his drawing. There he remained for almost a decade and became known in Rome as Carlo Jervasi.
Returning to London in 1709, he soon began to receive commissions and was noticed by Richard Steele who wrote of the artist's work in The Tatler. This writer was one of many Jervas numbered among his friends, together with Pope, Swift, Addison and Arbuthnot. Having married a wealthy widow, the artist was able to take a house near the Thames at Hampton where he regularly entertained. However, he also regularly returned to his country of birth, spending close to a year there in 1715/16 and settling in Ireland between June 1717 and September 1721. Among his subjects during these years were Speaker Conolly of Castletown, as well as his wife and daughter, members of the Cosby family, John Boyle, later fifth Earl of Cork and the Earl and Countess of Inchiquin.
The National Gallery of Ireland possesses one of his most charming pictures, of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Jervas's drawing skills were always weak, which is one reason so many of his sitters were given the same rather static and unimaginative poses. However, as Strickland observes, "he was a good colourist, with clearness and brilliancy in his flesh tints" and could often redeem weak draftmanship "by a certain grace and style".
A pair of portraits attributed to Jervas was recently offered for sale by Dublin's Gorry Gallery. Depicting members of the Waller family of Allenstown, Co Meath, in what were probably their original silver-leafed Irish carved wood frames, the paintings were certainly reminiscent of Jervas at his best: both sitters have faces full of individuality, even if their clothing (which seems to indicate that, if by this artist, the works were painted on one of his later visits to Ireland in either 1729 or 1734) is rather blandly rendered. Neither picture has any of the insipidness which can afflict so many portraits of this period; instead, they are forceful pieces of characterisation.
Following the death of Kneller, in October 1723, Jervas was appointed Principal Painter to George I, a position he also held under the king's successor. In 1738 he went to Italy to buy pictures for George II but died soon after his return the following year having declared, according to Pope, that life was not worth a day's journey "at the expense of parting from one's friends".
