John Snare

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of a Man (possibly José Nieto), c. 1635-45. Oil on canvas, Apsley House, London.^[1]

John Snare (born c.1811)^[2] was a bookseller and publisher from Reading, England, whose life was dominated by the discovery at a country house auction in 1845 of Diego Velázquez's lost painting, Portrait of a Man (possibly José Nieto), c. 1635-45.^[3]

In 2016, Snare's story was told by Observer art critic Laura Cumming in her book, The vanishing man: In pursuit of Velazquez (Chatto & Windus).^[4]

Selected publications

• The Post-Office Reading directory. Compiled ... by John Snare. John Snare, Reading, 1842.
• Snare's map of the country ten miles round Reading, compiled ... under the superintendence of M. Dodd. Reading, 1846. (map)
• The history and pedigree of the portrait of Prince Charles (afterwards Charles I) painted by Velasquez in 1623. 1847.
• A brief description of the portrait of Prince Charles, afterwards Charles the First, painted at Madrid, in 1623, by Velasquez: now exhibiting at No. 21, Old Bond Street, London. London, 1847.

References

1. Portrait of a Man. BBC Your Paintings. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
2. 1841 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
3. Velázquez’s vanishing act. Honor Clerk, The Spectator, 2 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
4. "How Velázquez gave me consolation in grief – and set me on the trail of a lost portrait", Laura Cumming, The Observer, 3 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.