Thomas Hope (1769–1831)

Henry Thomas Hope (30 August 1769 – 3 February 1830/1831), was a British author, philosopher and art collector, best known for his novel "Anastasius," a work which many experts considered a rival to the writings of Lord Byron.

The eldest son of John Hope (1737-1784), Thomas was descended from a branch of an old Scottish family who for several generations were merchants known as the Hopes of Amsterdam. He inherited from his mother a love of the arts, which the efforts of his father and grandfather made possible by acquiring an enormous wealth. His father spent his final years turning his summer home Groenendaal into a grand park of sculpture open to the public.

In 1784 when young Thomas was fifteen, his father died unexpectedly in the Hague just after purchasing Bosbeek, the house that was to house his large art collection. Missing his father and grandfather, and preferring the company of his mother and brothers to his uncles in Amsterdam, Thomas did not enter the family business. Instead, at the age of eighteen, Hope began to devote more and more of his time to the study of all the arts, especially the architecture of classical civilisation, during a series of tours to other countries. During his grand tour through Europe, Asia and Africa, Hope interested himself especially in architecture and sculpture, making a large collection of artefacts which attracted his attention (eg the Hope Dionysus).

In 1794 Hope returned to the Hague when his mother died. The same year the three Hope brothers, along with their uncle Henry Hope, who was the executor of their mother's will, fled to London before the oncoming French revolutionary forces marching on Amsterdam. In their haste to remove their art collections to the safety of London, the Hopes left their houses, summer homes and parks full of heavy statuary.

On establishing a residence in London with his bachelor uncle in Duchess Street, Cavendish Square, Hope fitted it out in a very elaborate style, from drawings made himself with each room taking on a different style influenced by the collection he amassed. The house museum included three vase galleries filled with South Italian vases Hope purchased from Sir William Hamilton's second vase collection. In this residence, his younger brother Henry Philip oversaw the gem collection (acquiring the Hope diamond and the Hope Pearl), while Uncle Henry busied himself with the banking business and the Louisiana Purchase. Thus, by 1795 Hope had successfully resettled in London where he was to establish himself for the rest of his life as a noted author, philosopher, scholar of world civilisations, a collector of the arts, and a patron of artists and craftsmen.

It was also during 1795 that Hope began his extensive tours of the Ottoman Empire which included visits to Turkey, Rhodes, Egypt, Syria, and Arabia. He stayed for about a year in Istanbul/Constantinople during which he produced some 350 drawings depicting the people and places he witnessed in the Ottoman Empire, a collection now to be found in the Benaki Museum, Athens. During these travels, Hope’s considerable wealth enabled him to collect many paintings, sculptures, antique objects and books, some of which were destined to be displayed for the public in his London house in Duchess Street in 1804.

After his marriage to Louisa de la Poer Beresford in 1806, Hope acquired a country seat at Deepdene, near Dorking in Surrey. Here, surrounded by his large collections of paintings, sculpture and antiques, Deepdene became a famous resort of men of letters as well as of people of fashion. Among the luxuries suggested by his fine taste, and provided to his guests, was a miniature library in several languages in each bedroom. He also gave frequent employment to artists, sculptors and craftsmen. Bertel Thorvaldsen, the Danish sculptor, was indebted to him for the early recognition of his talents, and he was also a patron to Francis Legatt Chantrey and John Flaxman; it was to his order that the latter illustrated Dante Alighieri.

One of Hope’s earliest ambitions was to advance public awareness of historical painting and design and to influence design in the grand houses of Regency London. In pursuit of his scholarly projects, he began sketching furniture, room interiors and costumes, and publishing books with his accompanying scholarly texts.

In 1807 Thomas Hope published sketches of his furniture,in a folio volume, entitled "Household Furniture and Interior Decoration," which had considerable influence and brought about a change in the upholstery and interior decoration of houses. Hope's furniture designs were in the pseudo-classical manner generally called "English Empire". It was sometimes extravagant, and often heavy, but was much more restrained than the wilder and later flights of Thomas Sheraton in this style. At the best, however, it was a not very inspiring mixture of Egyptian and Roman motives.

In 1809 he published the "Costumes of the Ancients," and in 1812 "Designs of Modern Costumes," works which display a large amount of antiquarian research. Later "An Historical Essay on Architecture," which featured illustrations based on early Hope drawings, was published posthumously by his family in 1835.

Thus Hope became famous in London’s aristocratic circles as ‘the costume and furniture man’. The sobriquet was regarded as a compliment by his enthusiastic supporters, but for his critics, including Lord Byron, it was a term of ridicule.

Approaching the age of fifty, and yearning for a different type of literary acclaim, Hope began work, with the enthusiastic encouragement of a few close friends, on what was destined to be one of the most important novels of the early 19th century.

In 1817, Hope began work on the book that was destined to astonish the West by lifting the curtain of ignorance which had encouraged enimity against the East. Yet this was no mere retelling of his own travels. In an unexpected move, Hope created an extraordinary narrator-hero who strode upon the stage and commanded the world's attention. Anastasius was fearless, curious, cunning, ruthless, brave, and above all, sexy. However, the novel was no mere recounting of adventures, for lodged within its pages were details regarding music, language, cuisine, religion, laws and literature in the Islamic world. The result was one of the most eloquently written, and entertaining, works written in English since Shakespeare.

When completed in 1819, "Anastasius," was a work of such academic interest, raw excitement and descriptive power that the first edition released by fabled London publisher, John Murray, became an overnight sensation. A second edition sold out in twenty-four hours. Foreign translations in French, German and Flemish quickly followed.

Because of his modesty, Hope originally chose not to declare his authorship of Anastasius in the first edition. Ironically, given Hope's mild reputation, the authorship of the dashing "Anastasius" was at first mistakenly attributed to Lord Byron, who, according to legend, confided to Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, that he wept bitterly on reading it. "To have been the author of 'Anastasius,' I would have given the two poems which brought me the most glory."

These events prompted Hope to reveal his identity as author in later editions, which included a map of the travels of Anastasius and some fine-tunings of the text. Though his authorship was still greeted with incredulity by some journals, attentive readers of "Anastasius" began to discover that Hope had presented them with a treasure trove of previously undisclosed Islamic details. The novel revealed the lives of the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire, as well as providing astonishing glimpses of the wars fought between the Turks, Russians and Wahabees.

Yet What continued to amaze Hope’s readers was why and how he had decided to adopt as his alter-ego the dashing young Anastasius, who is depicted in the story as a newly converted Muslim mercenary soldier, Selim, whose travels throw him among friends, lovers and enemies.Ultimately described as "one of the greatest books of the world," Hope's magnum opus later influenced Thackeray, Twain and Melville. More recently, the noted Orientalist, Robert Irwin, wrote, "this book, one of the most important books of the nineteenth century, should be much more widely read."

Soon after his death in 1831, Hope's widow, remarried her cousin William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford. Thereafter his family first embraced conservative values, then authorised the demolition of the writer's legendary London home, dispersed his fabled art collection, and distanced themselves from his Oriental masterpiece. No substantial collection of Hope’s personal papers survived the family indifference and thereafter "Anastasius," Hope's magnum opus, became a victim of the sanctimonious morality of the Victorian age.

In an artistic irony against his Oriental legacy, Thomas Hope, the man who revealed the secrets of the Ottoman world, was recently incorrectly described by the writer, Philip Mansel, as being protrayed in his portrait as wearing the clothes of "a low ranking Greek sailor."

However, because of studies undertaken in 2007, this 1798 portrait of Hope, done by William Beechey, can now be seen with a new appreciation. As proved by the noted Islamic scholar, Professor John Rodenbeck, the Beechey portrait depicts Hope dressed as a Turkish noble, not a Greek sailor. This discovery came about when Professor Rodebeck carefully examined, then translated, the Arabic writing which is embroidered on the original waistcoat owned by Hope, which the author also wears in the Beechey portrait. The waistcoat and portrait, both of which are in the possession of the National Portrait Gallery. reveal that Hope chose to have himself depicted as a rich Turkish Muslim standing before the most sacrosanct Islamic spot in Constantinople, the mosque of Abu Ayyub at Eyüp Sultan.

In addition to his other accomplishments, Hope was the author of an important philosophical work published posthumously, "The Origin and Prospect of Man (1831)," in which his speculations diverged widely from the social and religious views of the Victorian age. This volume, which has been cited by philosophy expert Roger Scruton, was a highly eclectic work and took a global view of the challenges facing mankind.

In his obituary published in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 476, Saturday, February 12, 1831 [1] , it was written, "We remember the opinion of a writer in the Edinburgh Review, soon after the publication of _Anastasius_. With a degree of pleasantry and acumen peculiar to northern criticism, he asks, "Where has Mr. Hope hidden all his eloquence and poetry up to this hour? How is it that he has, all of a sudden, burst out into descriptions which would not disgrace the pen of Tacitus, and displayed a depth of feeling and vigour of imagination which Lord Byron could not excel? We do not shrink from one syllable of this eulogy."

Still commonly known among literatry circles as "Anastasius Hope," the combined artistic legacy of Thomas Hope is still of universal interest and importance.

ources

*1911
* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk/beechey.htm The Beechey Portrait - A Visual Study of "Anastasius" by Professor John Rodenbeck]
* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk/triumph-tragedy.htm Thomas Hope - Triumph, Tragedy, Obverse Worlds by Jerry Nolan]
* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk/kostova.htm A Political Study of Anastasius by Professor Ludmilla Kostova]
* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk/philosophy.htm Hope’s Philosophical Excursus by Roger Scruton]
* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk/background.htm Anastasius - Towards Background and Meaning by Professor John Rodenbeck]
* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk/sandor.htm Sándor Baumgarten - Hope’s Forgotten Champion by Jerry Nolan]

External links

* [http://www.thomashope.org.uk www.thomashope.org.uk]
* [http://www.jerrynolanwriter.com Jerry Nolan]
* [http://www.roger-scruton.com Roger Scruton]
* [http://www.philipmansel.com/index.asp?page=5 Philip Mansel]
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/thomashope Thomas Hope: Regency Designer] - 2008 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=Thomas+Hope&LinkID=mp02266&rNo=0&role=sit Portrait of Thomas Hope] (National Portrait Gallery, London)