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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

looking forward out there

thanks wikimedia commons (PD:US, PD:100)
Here's Johann Zoffany again (I think I'm developing a soft spot for him) with an oil portrait done in the 1780s of Patrick Heatly.  Patrick joined the military service of the East India Company as a young man; his brother, Suetonius Grant Heatly, also joined the Company and became well-known through his development of one of the earliest coal mines in India.
I like the good-natured calm with which Patrick is shown looking out into the future, shading himself from the sun with his plain hat.  Next to him his dog is content to wait for their next move, though you can see from his face he's curious what could be next.  He's a handsome and well-cared-for pet but has the muscle tone of a working dog, just as Patrick is clearly prosperous but aware and capable.  Here's a snippet from Patrick's obituary of July 1834, in The Gentleman's Magazine (p. 543-4):
A studied panegyric on his life would be opposed to its chief characteristic— simplicity, and an utter distaste for every kind of ostentation. But while the writer refrains therefrom, it is some consolation to himself and those who lament his loss, to recall his many virtues, at the head of which was undeviating rectitude of principle and action. To a sound understanding he added benevolence of heart, and an unvarying cheerfulness, which made him alike the favourite of young and old, towards whom he exercised a constant and unpretending hospitality.

2 comments:

parlance said...

I wonder why one brother was called Patrick (Irish family?) and the other was Suetonius? I guess the mother got to name one boy and the father the other, lol.

S.G.T Heatly said...

Patrick is not only an Irish name! It is a common name in scores of countries and languages, including Arabic and Russian. "Patrick" is related to the word "patrician", which is Latin and means nobleman.

The Heatlys were Scottish from way, way back. Patrick and Suetonius's father left Scotland for New England. Their mother was the daughter of Sueton Grant, who himself was the son of another Sueton Grant. Like Patrick, Suetonius is an old Latin name.

Patrick Heatly was my 4th Great-grand-father.