John Camillus Hone, Portrait and Miniature Painter
(b. 1759, d. 1836)
Portrait and Miniature Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
John Camillus Hone. Miniature, probably by Nathaniel Hone, R.A.; in possession of Mr. Charles Hone, Tigh Lorcain Hall, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin.
Was born in 1759, the younger son of Nathaniel Hone, R.A. (q.v.). He learned his art under his father, and in 1775, at the age of 18, exhibited a "Portrait of a Lady" at the Free Society in London. In the following year he sent "St. Francis" and "The Spartan Boy" to the same Society's exhibition, and he again exhibited in 1779. He contributed to the Royal Academy each year from 1776 to 1780. In, or soon after, the latter year he went to the East Indies where for several years he successfully practised his art. Returning home about 1790 he settled in Dublin and was given the appointment of "Engraver of Dies" in the Stamp Office by the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Westmorland. He held this post for many years and appears to have relinquished the regular practice of his art, his name occurring but once as an exhibitor, viz., in 1809, when he sent three oil portraits to the exhibition in Hawkins Street. He did not exhibit at the Royal Hibernian Academy. In October, 1807, he married his cousin Abigail, daughter of Joseph Hone of York Street (his father's brother), and widow of the Rev. John Conolly, of York Street. Hone died in his house in Summerhill, Dublin, at the age of 75, on the 23rd of May, 1836. His widow survived him for many years, and died at the age, it is said, of 103 on 4th February, 1855, at the house, No. 14 Summerhill, where she and her husband had long resided.
An oil picture, portrait of R. C. Carr, signed C. Hone, with date illegible, belongs to Mr. W. T. Kirkpatrick, Donacomper, Celbridge. His portrait at the age of nine was painted by his father, Nathaniel Hone, and exhibited, under the title of "The Piping Boy," at the Royal Academy in 1769. This picture, which is now in the National Gallery of Ireland, was engraved in mezzotint by William Baillie in 1771. Another portrait, as "The Spartan Boy," also by Nathaniel Hone, was in the Academy in 1775 and was engraved in mezzotint by J. R. Smith, and in stipple by Newton. A small miniature portrait of him, unsigned but possibly by Nathaniel Hone, belongs to Mr. Charles H. Hone, Tigh-Lorcain Hall, Stillorgan.