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Guerin de Montacute Lebrun was a thirteenth century Grand Master of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, which later became the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Contents 1 Sir Joshua Reynolds's parrot 2 Portrait of Kitty Fisher 3 Lady Cockburn and her three eldest sons 4 Disagreement with a cook 5 The Parrot in Art 6 George Hysteron-Proteron 7 Origin and creation 8 Early life 9 Military career 10 Sportsman 11 Family 12 Religion 13 Honours 14 Clubs 15 Notes

[edit] Sir Joshua Reynolds's parrot

Sir Joshua Reynolds's parrot was a macaw and appears in some of his paintings.

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wga.hu/art/r/reynolds/cockburn.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thefilter.blogs.com/thefilter/literature/index.html&h=1097&w=880&sz=140&hl=en&start=87&tbnid=Eq8QpgC95kbl8M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlady%2Bbound%26start%3D72%26imgsz%3Dxxlarge%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

[edit] Portrait of Kitty Fisher

Kitty Fisher was one of London’s most successful courtesans and was rumoured to be Reynolds's mistress. Her sitting with the parrot seems genuine, as she plays with it, both seeming at their ease. However, the parrot is made into a background figure, with its colours muted.

See http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/reynolds/roomguide7.shtm

[edit] Lady Cockburn and her three eldest sons

This painting is in the National Gallery. The bird seems to be added later, as a sitting with a group of children would be unlikely, especially given the notorious bad-temper of the bird. The bird turns its back on the children, and its feathers are ruffled, apparently in annoyance.

See http://www.archive.org/stream/sirjoshuareynold19009gut/19009-8.txt

The portrait hangs only a few feet away from that most famous Georgian painting of a dead parrot, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, it’s a coincidence I think Crabbe would have been pleased with.

Reynolds had an acquaintance with the poet George Crabbe, who was curate to the Duchess of Rutland at Belvoir Castle, while Reynolds was her favourite portrait artist. Crabbe visited Reynolds's studio while he was working on The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents. It may be a coincidence that Crabbe refers to a parrot in his poem The Parish Register.

A parrot next, but dead and stuff’d with art; (For Poll, when living, lost the Lady’s heart, And then his life; for he was heard to speak Such frightful words as tinged his Lady’s cheek:) Unhappy bird! Who had no power to prove, Save by such speech, his gratitude and love.

http://www.abcgallery.com/R/reynolds/reynolds101.html http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/reynolds/roomguide7.shtm

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/whats_on/listings/art/article1373045.ece

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

A COLLECTION OF FIFTEEN PICTURES

AND A PORTRAIT OF THE PAINTER

WITH INTRODUCTION AND

INTERPRETATION

BY

ESTELLE M. HURLL 1900, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

[edit] Disagreement with a cook

The macaw was reported to be a favourite with all in Reynolds's house except his cook, who took a dislike to it. One day, the bird was in Reynolds's studio, where he was busy on pictures of all his servants. The macaw, seeing the cook's picture, attacked it with pecking, trying to damage it. This caused Reynolds to ask his servants whether his bird had any reason to dislike his cook, and when he learnt that the cook was in the habit of teasing the bird and taking its food away, she was dismissed.^[1]

Reynolds commented - "I see that birds and beasts are as good judges of pictures as men".^[2]

[edit] The Parrot in Art

see http://www.cityparrots.org/2007/02/13/a-squawk-on-the-wild-side/

[edit] George Hysteron-Proteron

Colonel the Hon. George Hysteron-Proteron CB DL JP (1870 - 1942) was a fictional British soldier, sporting gun, and Lord of the manor of Five Mile Wallop, Cambridgeshire, the invention of the author J. K. Stanford.

In his London home, the Qu'hais' Club, he was known as The Old Grouse-Cock.^[3]

[edit] Origin and creation

Hysteron-Proteron's creator J. K. Stanford wrote in 1964 that "George... owed his origin to a face in the East India Club... On one occasion at breakfast he sent for the waiter and said, in my hearing, 'Didn't I order mutton cutlets with blood? There's no blood in these! Take them away!' "^[4]

The character first appeared in Stanford's first book, The Twelfth (1944), which was revised in 1964 as The Twelfth and After: being the life and death of George Hysteron-Proteron. The original book, The Twelfth, was written between 1942 and 1943 in the North African desert, while the author was serving with the British Eighth Army between El Alamein and Gabès.^[4]

A member of Boodle's wrote after receiving the book as a Christmas present in 1944: "I see the author mentions Boodle's. I don't know if he is a member here but there are six George Proterons sitting round me in the smoking-room at the moment."^[4]

[edit] Early life

Hysteron-Proteron was educated at Eton,^[5] the Royal Military College, Sandhurst^[6] "and the Badminton Library".^[7]

[edit] Military career

He fought with the Black Scots regiment in Matabeleland and the Boer War and in France during the Great War, which he ended in 1918 as a Billeting Officer.^[7]

[edit] Sportsman

Hysteron-Proteron was said to be "one of the ten or twelve best shots in the kingdom.^[3] He kept "a most elaborate game book" (that is, a detailed record of everything he killed) which in 1938 was in its twentieth volume.^[8] He had then shot "about 200,000 head".^[7]

[edit] Family

Hysteron-Proteron was a younger son of Lord Parable, while his mother was "a Fleuchary of Brawl, in north Sunderland".^[7] His half-brother William Proteron was a Master of Foxhounds, but the two men did not speak to each other for thirty years,^[3] this being in connection with their rivalry to inherit the fortune of "a very rich but invalid Hysteron aunt in Suffolk", who when she died left her money equally between the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Society for the Abolition of Bloodsports.^[9] Hysteron-Proteron's first cousin Randolph Hysteron was a novelist whose "incredibly modern novels" included What the hell does it matter? and God will call it Quits. His heroes were "lonely and apt to hang round brothels", and Hysteron-Proteron read his books.^[10]

Unmarried, Hysteron-Proteron's heir was a nephew, said in 1938 to be "in quod at this moment for dangerous driving on the Kingston By-pass".^[7]

[edit] Religion

Until his final four years, Hysteron-Proteron's attendance at church was spasmodic, Sunday being his morning for going round his nests and rearing-field with the estate's head keeper, after his Friday and Saturday sport. However, after giving up shooting in 1938, he would often put on a dark blue suit, stiff white collar, spats and bowler hat and attend church parade in the family pew.^[11]

Hysteron-Proteron found the Church of England's hymns ominous, and once asked the Vicar to lend him some books on the After-life, explaining "When I was a boy, it was just plain heaven and hell, and me nurse always insisted I should never see the first. You know what I mean: what are we in for?" He went on to explain his fears of milling around with the Cherubim: "I dislike crowds... I can't stand community singin'! All that harpin' and allelujerin' and celestial choirs. Frightens me... frightful glare there must be off the golden pavements. Don't like the prospect, meself!" He found the Vicar astonishingly ill-informed and uneasy.^[12]

[edit] Honours

• Hysteron-Proteron was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1918, for military services.^[7] He was also Patron and President of the Five Mile Wallop Horticultural Society^[13]

[edit] Clubs

He was a member of the Qu'hais' Club and Boodle's.^[7]

[edit] Notes