Updated 9 September 2024 with the image from the Grimsthorpe website.
The Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, Terracotta Bust of Handel.
by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Circa 1738.
28 inches (71.1 cm) tall with the socle, 23 inches (58.4 cm) without.
28 inches (71.1 cm) tall with the socle, 23 inches (58.4 cm) without.
The related plaster bust at Gloucester Cathedral is pictured below.
For much more on the various Roubiliac busts of Handel see my posts
1739. George Frederick Handel, Marble Bust, Windsor Castle, RCIN 35255.
For the terracotta relief portrait of Handel at the Victoria and Albert Museum see -
Image above courtesy the Grimsthorpe website.
Photographed in the Tapestry Room at Grimsthorpe Castle, 5 May 2015.
Grimsthorpe Castle, Ancestral seat of the Dukes of Ancaster.
Photographs at the bottom of the page are of the Gloucester Cathedral Plaster bust of Handel.
Photographs at the bottom of the page are of the Gloucester Cathedral Plaster bust of Handel.
Photographing this bust at Grimsthorpe was an almost impossible task and I apologise for the poor quality. At some time in its past this bust, particularly the head and the right shoulder, had been smashed into several pieces and then reconstructed, as is obvious from these photographs.
It has also been painted and stripped of paint at least twice, leaving evidence on the surface of the terracotta of layers of yellow and pinkish paint.
It is currently in a room where the shutters are permanently closed in order to protect the important tapestries from damage by light. Given the fragility of the terracotta and the fact that the bust has been attached to a heavy black marble socle with a large iron pin, it would have been impossible to move into the light without risk of further damage.
Consequently these photographs were taken without flash but with the aid of a portable fluorescent lead light. Not ideal circumstances but enough to give me the opportunity to show close up details of the surface and to make comparisons with the other busts of Handel by Roubiliac.
Contrary to reports from Malcolm Baker that it showed evidence that it had been cast in a piece mould I could find no evidence for this. The photographs here show clearly the joins where the terracotta pieces were glued back together, particularly high on the proper left cheek and at the top of the right arm. In a previous post I suggested that these might be firing cracks but I now firmly believe that this bust had been damaged in an accident.
Unfortunately there are no records of when this bust entered the collection at Grimsthorpe.
It was only identified by John Mallet and Malcolm Baker in 1985.
It should be noted that there is no mole or wart on the left hand proper cheek clearly visible on the Foundling Hospital terracotta.
The hole at the back of the collar suggests that it had been made for a particular position, being tied back to a structure using this hole.
I am very grateful to Ray Biggs, Estate Manager of Grimsthorpe for allowing me to photograph this wonderful bust and to Peter Hone for acting as my assistant.
Newspaper clipping from Morning Post and Advertiser 22 June 1786.
"Three remarkably fine busts of Milton, Shakespeare and Handel exquisitely modelled by Roubiliac"
From the sale of the collection of John Stanley.
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The catalogue for a sale by Christie's on 29 March 1805 'of ... Vases, Marbles, etc collected by a Man of Fashion during a recent visit to Rome and Naples', also included 'original models in Terra Cotta, by the celebrated Roubiliac, &c, &c.'
Lot, 117, was described as 'Tarquin and Lucretia, a singularly fine model in terra cotta, by the celebrated Roubiliac, undoubtedly, with a glass shade'.
Lot 118 was described as An original model of the bust of Handel, by Roubiliac, in terra cotta', and it was sold for three Guineas.
This probably refers to the Grimsthorpe terracotta.
Lot 119 was described as an original model of the bust of Alexander Pope by Roubiliac. All were consigned by someone named 'Belcher', Possibly a misspelling of Belchier, the consignor therefore possibly being a relative of the deceased Dr John Belchier (d 1785), who moved in artistic circles, apparently having an acquaintance with both Pope and Handel, and whose own bust Roubiliac had modelled (model or cast, Royal College of Surgeons).
This must refer to the Barber Institute Terracotta of Alexander Pope.
The annotations to the right of the lot descriptions, where the auctioneer has recorded the result of the auction, are incomplete, and do not disclose the name of the purchaser of the bust of Handel, lot 119 (the terracotta bust of Pope) was acquired by one 'Rogers' for five Guineas, (the Poet Samuel Rogers).
Dr John Bust of Belcher.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Terracotta.
Royal College of Surgeons.
I am grateful to Bruce Simpson Curator at the RCS for providing this photograph.
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The Grimsthorpe, the Sotheby's marble bust , above and Halle Haus, and Gloucester Cathedral busts for comparison.
In 2008 a plaster bust of Handel which is similar to the bust at Grimsthorpe Castle, but almost exactly the same as the Gloucester Cathedral plaster bust of Handel appeared on the website of the Stiftung Handel-Haus in Halle, Germany, which restated the attribution of the model to Roubiliac.
It was made for Handel-Haus in 1997 by the gipsformerei (plaster workshop) of the Stiftung Preutgischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, and that plaster was cast after an identical plaster bust in their collection bearing the signature of the German sculptor, Aurelio (Mark Aurelius) Micheli (1834-1908, fl 1860-70), who specialised in portraits of notable Germans, many of them composers, and whose works appear to have been issued in multiples produced by the plaster workshop of the Micheli Brothers in Berlin.
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The Gloucester Cathedral Plaster Bust of Handel.
suggested as workshop of Roubiliac.
Photographed by the author at Gloucester Cathedral.
The fine detail which has not been obscured by overpainting suggests that it is an early cast from the Roubiliac workshop at St Martin's Lane.
In 1739 he provided a plaster bust of Alexander Pope for Hugh Hume Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont. The payment was made January 1738/9 (Nat Arts Lib ref - MSL/1939/1578
This perhaps a version of the Milton Fitzwilliam Marble dated 1740 - other plasters of this bust are known such as the Felbrig and Disraeli plasters.
In 1741 he supplied three busts of Handel to the composer's patron James Harris (1709 - 1780) and was hoping to interest him in other subjects - "you know I have Mr Pope's busto which I have likewise made after life. I have also Milton and Newtons so in case any of your friends should want them you will be pleased to recommend them" see Harris Correspondence Music and Theatre by Burrows Dunhill
Roubiliac had been producing plaster multiples of his busts by 1738 when he was still living at Peters Court. It has always been assumed that he had his workshop at Peters Court sharing the building with the St Martin's Lane Academy - this would seem an unlikely arrangement unless the rooms were separate.
Rysbrack stated that he expected the moulds to last for about 25 casts before they needed renewing.
The Gloucester Cathedral Plaster Bust of Handel by Roubiliac.
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