Mr J. Lea, Esq.
1866
Volume 13, page 171, sitting number 17,217.
[This is among the last of the portraits that appear in the Silvy daybooks, which end a few pages later with sitting number 17,266. The last portrait for which a date was entered is sitting number 17,048, which took place on 21 May 1866.]
An inscription on the album page identified the sitter as 'Mr Lea, Singing Master / Egremont, Cheshire.' The sitter has inscribed and signed the mount recto in the lower margin: 'Most sincerely yours, J. Lea.'
When in 1861 he gave a lecture in Liverpool on the history of music, it was reported that: 'Formerly, Mr Lea resided in Liverpool, but for the last twelve years he has been in America, where he met with the greatest success as a singer, lecturer, and teacher of music. His voice is a fine baritone of great power and compass, and his rendering of some of our national and characteristic songs is not to be surpassed' (Liverpool Daily Post, 24 January 1861).
On 19 December 1866 the Liverpool Mercury reported on 'the first in a series of winter lectures' at the Liverpool Gymnasium. Apparently, 'the well-known professor of music, Mr J. Lea' [...] 'delighted his audience for upwards of an hour by his able remarks on the culture of the voice.'
An earlier review of a similar lecture that appeared in the Liverpool Daily Post (26 January 1861) praised his 'pleasant, graceful elocution. [...] The discourse, as a whole, evinced very great research and much aptitude in selection and composition. It consisted [...] of a most complete and interesting view of the whole history of music.' The reviewer also mentioned 'the excellent rendering Mr Lea gave, in a full baritone voice, well trained and very expressive, to many most interesting and beautiful songs.' Later that year, the same journal touted 'another admirable and instructive entertainment. [...] Having already, more than once, written in commendation of the entertainment, we can only repeat that it is one that furnishes a musical treat of the first order; it embraces an interesting outline of the history of music in England from the middle ages to the present time, and is interspersed with interesting anecdotes and remarks' (Liverpool Daily Post, 16 October 1861).
On 21 May 1863 the Liverpool Daily Post notified the public that 'Mr and Mrs Lea, well known both as performers and instructors in the highest styles of vocal music, announce a concert at the Town-hall, Waterloo, the particulars of which offer the lovers of music rare gratification.'
[This was Mr Lea's second sitting with Silvy. He had previously visited the studio with his wife on 16 May 1862 (Volume 6, page 312, sitting number 8116) and been photographed beside an upright piano while holding some sheet music.]