Thursday 30 April 2015

       Marble bust of Princess Amelia Sophia Eleanor (1711 - 86), 
   2nd daughter of George II. by Louis Francois Roubiliac. c.1740.

                       Signed below her left shoulder L.F.Roubiliac Scit, ad vivum.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                             In the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.


The former owner told Mrs K. Esdaile (Louis Francois Roubiliac - pub Oxford 1928) that the bust had been given by William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, to his sister Lady Caroline Waldegrave, daughter of the 3rd Earl Waldegrave. Her mother had been a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princesses Amelia and Caroline, and the latter had been left £4,000 in the Princess's will.

Height: (bust): 58.0 cm, Height: (socle): 14.8 cm. Width: (whole): 48.5 cm.

Malcolm Baker in Figured in Marble, pub.V and A Studies, 2000. notes the inclusion in the sale of William Smith, lot 82 - 25 Feb, 1800, - two sculptural figures in marble, laughing and crying boys. These are followed immediately by a bust of Princess Amelia. This could be the bust above or possibly a terracotta study.


 
Princess Amelia by Jean Baptiste - van Loo c.1738.
Private Collection.
 
 
 
After Hans Hysing, engraved by John Faber the Younger, pub John and Thomas Bowles. c.1730.
 
 
 
After the Original by Philip Mercier, printed and published by John Simon c.1730.
 
 
After Hans Hysing, engraved by John Faber c.1730.
 
 
 
Published by Elizabeth Bakewell c. 1760.
 
All engraved images from British Museum.
 
 
Princess Amelia, Princess Anne and Princess Caroline by Phillipe Mercier 1728
 
At Hertford Magistrates Court, Hertford, Hertfordshire U.K.
 
 
Detail of Princess Amelia. 
 
 

 
 
 

Wednesday 29 April 2015

     Jan de Bisschop, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1628 - 1671.

                              Paradigmata graphices variorum artificum.
Engraved by Jan de Bisschop, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1628 - 1671), The Hague, Netherlands) and GĂ©rard de Lairesse, ( 1641 - 1711). Published Nicolaes Visscher , Amsterdam 1618 - Amsterdam 1679.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A bust Elizabeth Finch by Roubiliac

        
           Marble bust of Elizabeth Finch, Countess of Mansfield.
                      By Louis Francois Roubiliac, circa 1740.

                                 At Kenwood House, Hampstead, London, English Heritage.





Currently the best images available. This bust could be as early as 1738 made to celebrate the marriage of Elizabeth Finch to William Murray later to become Lord Mansfied.
She was a cousin of Hugh Hume - Campbell, third earl of Marchmont, whose plaster bust of Alexander Pope is mentioned in his account book for 18 January 1738 /39 - "Monsr Rouillac Statuary for Mr Popes busto 2.2.- a slightly later entry for 10th February that year records another payment for Pope's bust and that of their mutual friend Lord Bolingbroke.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Marble bust probably of Elizabeth Finch by Henrietta Finch.

                                                  Victoria and Albert Museum.















This marble bust is inscribed Henrietta Finch and dated 1741 is a variant of one thought to be of Lady Elizabeth Finch by Louis Francois Roubiliac at Kenwood, London, formerly dated to c.1745. Because the present marble is a lesser copy of the Kenwood sculpture, it is likely that the Roubiliac at Kenwood in fact dates from slightly earlier than previously thought, probably around 1740.

The present bust was formerly thought to be a portrait of Lady Henrietta Finch, Lady Elizabeth's sister, hence the inscription on the back of the integral socle. However it is possible that it was in fact executed by Henrietta, who is shown apparently with a bust on a modelling table in a family portrait of the early 1730s now at the Yale Center for British Art, as if she herself was a practising sculptor. This would mean that the inscription was a signature, rather than one identifying the sitter. As such, it is an extraordinary instance of a marble sculpture by an eighteenth-century woman sculptor in Britain. It is also an interesting example of a copy, and reflects the idea of multiples in sculpture, which was prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries. The acquisition of this bust by the V&A means that it joins other busts of members of the Finch family already in the collection.

Height: 70 cm - Bust and socle, Height: 55 cm - Bust alone, Width: 43 cm.

Information and photographs lifted from the V&A website, see -





The Watson - Wentworth and Finch Families, circa 1740,
by Charles Philips (1708 - 47).

39 1/2 x 49 inches (100.3 x 124.5 cm). Signed, lower left: "C Philip[?] Pinxit"





       The Bust of  Elizabeth Finch when sold by Sotheby's.

Sold Sotheby's London Lot 258, 27th September 2012, after Louis-François Roubiliac (1702-1762)
Inscribed: Henrietta Finch 1741, white marble on a possibly associated white marble base
69.5cm., 27 3/8 in.

The condition report stated "Overall the condition of the marble is good with dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. The nose is reattached or restored. There are possible further restorations to the proper right cheek and to the mouth. There is some minor veining consistent with the material, including underneath the proper right eye. There are also a few small naturally occurring inclusions, including in the hair and brow. As noted in the cataloguing, the base may be associated, and there are chips and abrasions to the edges. There is some red paint to the lips and a few drips of wax. The marble would benefit from a professional cleaning".


Lady Elizabeth and Lady Henrietta Finch, of circa 1730 - 31.
by Charles Jervas (1675 -1739).

Collection of English Heritage at Kenwood House.

Oil on canvas, 183 x 142 cm. Purchased at P. & D. Colnaghi, 1983.

Daughters of Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham. Finch's second marriage, on 29 December 1685, was to Anne Hatton (1668-1743), daughter of Christopher Hatton, Viscount Hatton. Lady Nottingham was appointed a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary II in 1691. She had over twenty pregnancies

Elizabeth Finch (1723 – 10 April 1784). She married William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield in 1738.
No known descendants.

Lady Henrietta Finch (d. 14 April 1742). She married William Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland, a son of Charles Fitzroy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland and Anne Poultney. No known descendants.



The extract below lifted from Kenwood, Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest by Julius Bryant,
Yale University Press.





Friday 24 April 2015

Engravings of two busts by Lucas Vorstermans, after Rubens,
circa 1620.
 
 
Plato, engraved by Lucas Vorstermans, circa 1620.
 
Lettered in lower margin, with title and production details: "Pet. Paul Rubens pinxit" and "Luc. Vorstermans sculp." Size - 136mm x 93mm.
 
After the painting by Rubens made for Balthasar Moretus, see below.
 
 
 
Seneca Engraved by Lucas Vorstermans after Rubens.
 
Lettered in lower margin with title and production details: "Pet. Paul Rubens pinxit" and "Luc. Vorstermans scupsit". Size - 135mm x 35mm

Lucas Vorstermans (1595 - 1675) - Engraver, etcher, draughtsman and publisher, the finest in Rubens school; broke with Rubens mid 1622 and left the latter's studio after a row. Came to London in 1624; returned to Antwerp via Paris in 1630; went blind in 1650s. On 11 July 1622 he received a six-year privilege as a publisher from Archduchess Isabella of Austria; teacher of Paulus Pontius, Martinus van der Goes and Hans Witdoeck; father of Lucas Vorsterman II.

Images and information from the British Museum.

 
Rubens - Study of Two heads, circa 1609.
 
27 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (69.9 x 52.1 cm)
Metropolitan Museum - Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967.
 
 

Thursday 23 April 2015

 Peter Paul Rubens - Twelve Famous Greek and Roman Men 1638.

This group of engravings were probably the most influential in disseminating the images of the classical bust throughout northern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

 A series of twelve plates by different printmakers after antique marble portrait sculptures (heads, busts, herms), a project that Rubens completed in 1638, but that must have commenced much earlier (as one of the engravers, Bolswert, died in 1633). A number of these sculptures may have been part of the antiquities collection of Rubens himself; it is known that Nicolaas Rockox acquired the Demosthenes herm in 1622.

The four different engravers were all employed by Rubens in his studio and are Paulus Pontius, Lucas Vorsterman I, Hans Witdoeck and Boëtius Adamsz Bolswert.

The production of the prints was closely supervised by Rubens as attested by five retouched proof impressions. Only six of Rubens' preparatory drawings have survived.

Rubens had such Roman sculptural heads in his own collection, and he would have been aware of the passage in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (XXXV, 9-11) in which he describes the Roman invention of setting up in libraries the portraits of great spirits from the past.

This and the following info from British Museum. Hermitage, St Peterberg, Hunterian Museum Glasgow,

 
Sophocles wearing a taenia and drapery, after Rubens engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.
 
Lettered in lower margin, with production details and title: Ex marmore antiquo and P.P. Rubens delin. / P. Pontius sculpsit. Ao. 1638 and "Cum Priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ". Size - 305mm x 218mm.
 
 
Plato after Rubens engraved by Lucas Vorsterman, 1638.
 
Herm statue of the Greek philosopher Epicure wrongly titled Plato.  Lettered in lower margin,  Ex marmore antique and "P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculp." and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). Size - 291mm x 189mm.
 
A drawing by Rubens is in the Morgan Library, New York, inv.no.III,161; a preparatory drawing by Vorsterman is in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, inv.no.5949; see F. Stampfle, 'Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library', New York-Princeton, 1991, pp.156-157, cat.no.324.
 
 
Socrates, engraved by Paulus Pontius after Rubens, 1638.
 
Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / P. Pontius sculpsit. Ao. 1638" and "Cum Privilegiis Regis Christianiss. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ". Size - 311mm x 213mm.
 
Some scholars identify the portrait as the historiographer Thucydides.
After an unknown drawing by Rubens. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection).

 
Demosthenes, after Rubens engraved by H. Witdoeck, 1638.

              Herm statue of the Greek poet Anakreon (wrongly titled Demosthenes)

Ex marmore antiquo, apud D. Nicolavm Rockoxivm, Antuerpiæ" and "P.P. Rubens delineavit. / H. Withouc sculpsit. Ao.1638" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ".

After an unknown drawing by Rubens; a proof impression of the plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

After a marble sculpture which belonged to Nicolaas Rockox until his death in 1640 after which Queen Christina of Sweden acquired it. It is now in the National Museum of Stockholm.



 
Cicero after Rubens, engraved by Jan Witdoeck, 1638.
 
Bust statue of Julius Caesar (wrongly titled Cicero) with short hair, wearing a fringed scarf, bust on a pedestal, almost seen in profile to right; from the set of twelve plates showing antique busts after drawings by Rubens.
After an unknown drawing by Rubens; a proof impression of the plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, inv.no.C10.516. After an unidentified marble sculpture (part of Rubens' antiquities collection).
 
The similarity of this bust with that of the Roubiliac bust of Alexander Pope should be noted.
 
 
Scipio Africanus, after Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.
 
Ex marmore antiquo" and P.P. Rubens delin. / H. Withouc sculp. Ao.1638" and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.

After a grisaille by Rubens, lost since 1912; a proof impression of the plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, inv.no.C10.517. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). Size - 295mm x 216mm.

 
Nero, after Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.
 

Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delineavit. / P. Pontius sculpsit Ao. 1638" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ".

After a pen drawing by Rubens, now in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge Mass., inv.no.1932.360; a proof impression of this plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, inv.no.C10.517.

After an unidentified marble sculpture (part of Rubens' antiquities collection acquired in 1618 from Sir Dudley Carleton). Size - 310mm x 203mm.

 
 
 

  Democritus after Rubens engraved by Lucas Vorstermans, 1738.

Ex marmore antiquo and P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculp. and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.

The identification as Democritus is uncertain.
After an unknown drawing by Rubens. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). Size 259mm x 210mm.



Julius Caeser after Rubens engraved by Ademsz Boetius c.1638.
 
Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / B a Bolswert sculpsit" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ". Size - 290mm x 212mm.

After a pen drawing by Rubens, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv.no.20.225. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection).



Seneca, after Rubens, engraved by Lucas Vorstermans,1638.
 
Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculpsit Ao. 1638" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ
 
After a sketch by Rubens in the Metropolitan Museum New York (see below)
 
After an unidentified marble sculpture (part of Rubens' antiquities collection since 1608, brought back from Italy).
 
 
Brutus after Rubens, engraved by Lucas Vorstermans.1638.
Ex marmore antiquo and P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculpsit Ao. 1638" and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.
 
After a pen drawing by Rubens, now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, inv.no.5461.
After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection).
Size 284mm x 197mm.
 
 
Hippocates, after Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.
 
"HIPPOCRATES HIRACLIDAE F. COVS. Ex marmore antiquo." (b.l.) "P.P. Rubens delineauit. P. Pontius Sculp. A1638." (b.r.) "Cum Privilegiis Regis Christianiss Principum Belgarum, et Ordy Batauiae" Verso hidden by mount. Size 
 
Image from The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow.

see - http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=art&searchTerm=8071


 
Sketch of Seneca by Rubens in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
 
 
The Four Philosophers - Rubens.
 
From the left, self portrait of Rubens, his brother Philip Rubens, Justus Lisius and Jan van de Wouwere - Pitti Palace, Florence