Author: HERVE, Charles
Biography:
HERVE, Charles (1785-1866: ancestry.com)
The only known volume of poems by Charles Hervé tells a sad story that ultimately had a quite happy ending. He published it to honour his late brother Peter Hervé (1779-1827) and to raise funds for his own “numerous” family in times of difficulty. The Hervés were a London family descended from French Protestant (Huguenot) immigrants, many of them artists. Charles, Peter, and their brother Francis became well established painters of miniature portraits; Charles and a fourth brother, Henry, were also known for their silhouettes. Son of Margaret (Russel) and Peter Daniel Hervé, Charles was baptised at All Hallows London Wall on 28 Feb. 1785. He married Catherine Elizabeth Walpole Stanley (1784-1848) on 2 Apr. 1808 at St. George’s Hanover Square; they went on to have three sons and three daughters between 1809 and 1821. He invented an “automaton artist” called the Prosopographus that appeared to make fine silhouettes but in reality concealed the artist who manipulated its arms, and toured the country with it. In the meantime, his brother Peter undertook the founding of a charity aimed at providing financial support to people, especially of the middle classes, who were unable to work on account of age or illness. He set up committees throughout the country to raise money from subscriptions and donations. Mrs. Ann Partis, founder of the almshouses in Bath known as Partis College, made a generous donation and Charles’s book is dedicated to her. By the time of publication, however, donations for Peter’s National Benevolent Institution had not reached their target. Peter died in France in 1827; it was thought that disappointment hastened his death. Nevertheless, the Institution continued to grow, attracted important patrons, was given a royal charter, and is active to this day. Charles Hervé’s family, which may have been suffering at the time, weathered the storms and prospered. The 1851 Census shows Charles living with his brother Francis, both of them widowers and portrait painters, in St. Marylebone; in 1861 he was living with his son Edwin, another portrait painter, in Wimbledon. He died at 8 Montpelier Place, Brompton, on 9 May 1866 and was buried at Brompton Cemetery on 14 May. (ancestry.com 19 Dec. 2022; findmypast.com 19 Dec. 2022; natben.org.uk 19 Dec. 2022; profilesofthepast.org uk 19 Dec. 2022)