According to genealogical records at Ancestry.com and the Births, Marriages and Death register (FreeBMD), Joshua Hargrave Sams Mann was born in Hertfordshire in about 1826, to Mary E. and James Hargrave Mann. His marriage to Katharine Marion Williams was registered in Wandsworth in 1860, and at around this time he is known to have been a friend of Whistler's, one of whose etchings was wrongly identified as a portrait of him (see Lochnan 142, 353). Mann died in St Pancras in 1886, at the age of 60. Despite his distinctive name, not much else is known about him, except that he was prolific, exhibited his work regularly, and often took his inspiration from poetry. His paintings are appealing, in a way that is very much of their time, but sometimes rises above it. His name appears in many auction house listings, and the paintings are still quite affordable. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Works
Bibliography
Lochnan, Katharine. Whistler's Etchings and the Sources of His Etching Style, 1855-1880. New York: Garland, 1988.
Wood, Christoher, Christopher Newall and Margaret Richardson. Victorian Painters: The Text. Antique Collectors' Club, 1995.
Created 11 June 2020