BONE, HENRY PIERCE (1779–1855), artist, son of Henry Bone [q. v.], was born on 6 Nov. 1779, and received his art education from his father. Hs commenced as a painter in oils, and when twenty years of age exhibited some portraits, In 1806 he began painting classical subjects, and continued doing so until 1833, when he reverted to his father's art of enameling. This mode of painting he continued to practise until he ceased to exhibit, which was in 1855, the year of his death, In 1846 he published a catalogue of his enamels. He was appointed successively enamel painter to Queen Adelaide, and to her present majesty, also to the late prince consort; and he died at 22 Percy Street, Bedford Square, on 21 Oct. 1855. Though his enamels did not attain the supreme excellence of his father’s, they display very considerable ability, and he was not only a rapid sketcher, but his designs for classical and scripture subjects were bold and skilful.
[Redgrave’s Dictionry of Artists of the English School; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis; writer's Collections of Artists’ Drawings, &c.]
BONE, ROBERT TREWICK (1790–1840), painter, was a younger brother of Henry Pierce Bone [q. v.], and was born on 24 Sept. 1790. He also was a pupil of his father, with whom he resided for twenty years. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1813, and again in 1815, but ceased doing so after 1838. In 1817 he gained a premium of 100l. from the British Institution for his painting of ‘a Lady with her Attendants at the Bath.’ He does not appear to have done much, if anything, in enamel painting, but confined himself almost exclusively to sacred, classic, and domestic subjects. His works, though generally small, are tasteful and sparkling, and he was a member of the Sketching Club. He died from the effects of an accident on 5 May 1840.
[Redgrave's Dictionary of British Artists; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis; writer's Collections of Artists’ Drawings, &c.]
BONER, CHARLES (1815–1870), author, was the second child and only son of Charles Boner, of Bath, who died at Twickenham, 14 Aug. 1833. He was born at Weston, near Bath, 29 April 1815; was educated at Bath from 1825 to 1827, and then at Tiverton grammar school from 1827 to 1829. From 1831 to 1837 he was tutor to the two elder sons of John Constable, the painter. After his mother's death in 1839, he accepted an invitation from Baron August Doernberg to take up his abode with him in Germany. Some time later, having perfected himself in the language of the country, he accompanied the baron to Ratisbon, where he had the offer of a very honourable post in the family of the Prince Thurn und Taxis. Charles Boner was the lifelong friend of the prince. His pupils valued his society, and he became intimate with a large number of the friends of the art- and literature-loving prince. Whilst in London in 1844 he entered into an arrangement to contribute to the ‘Literary Gazette,’ and he contributed a series of articles on the German poets, which brought him much more fame than profit.
The majority of Boner's poems are dated from St. Emeran, Ratisbon, where he spent twenty years in the family of the Prince Thurn und Taxis. He soon won a place among the poets of the day, and his translations from the German, especially of H. C. Andersen’s ‘A Danish Story Book’ in 1846, and ‘The Dream of Little Tuck’ in 1848, are remarkably faithful and idiomatic. In 1845 he made the acquaintance of Miss Mary Russell Mitford, whom he carried on a literary correspondence for ten years. One of the last acts of his life was an attempt to edit Miss Mitford’s letters to himself, but this work was reserved for other hands. He published ‘C. Boner's Book for those who are young, and those who love what is natural and truthful,’ in 1848; ‘Chamois Hunting,’ in 1853, a new edition of which appeared in 1860; ‘H. Masius's Studies from Nature,’ and ‘Cain,’ in 1855; ‘The New Dance of Death and other Poems,’ in 1857; and ‘Verses,’ in 1858. After he left Ratisbon in 1860 he made Munich his home. His daughter, Marie, was married, 27 Feb. 1865, to Professor Theodor Horschelt, the painter, of Munich. As special correspondent of the ‘Daily News,’ he went to Vienna in August 1865, his connection with that paper lasting from the time when the treaty of commerce between England and Austria was arranged until the conclusion of the seven weeks' war.
He also wrote for the ‘New York Tribune’ and many other papers. In 1867 he went to Salzburg to be present at the meeting of Napoleon III and the Emperor of Austria, and wrote a very graphic description of the scene. One of the last events of importance in his life was a visit to Trieste, where he attended the funeral of the Emperor Maximilian, and compiled a very interesting memoir of that unfortunate prince. Boner’s chief works not yet mentioned are ‘Forest Creatures,’ 1861; ‘Transylvania, its Products and People,’ 1865; ‘Guide for Travellers in the Plain and on the Mountain,’’ 1866; and ‘Siebenbürgen. Land und Leute,’ 1868.
