Post updated and edited 31 August 2024.
The Scheemakers Marble Statue of William Shakespeare.
The Monument in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey and it Variants.
The Full Size Plaster Cast.
For much more on the Scheemakers Westminster Abbey Statue and its variants.
see my blog post -
The Statue is inscribed P. Scheemakers 1, MDCCXL, on a composition base,
all raised on a separate wooden plinth, old damage to composition base.
Maximum
dimensions including plinth approximately 117cmcm wide, 56cm deep, 264cm high
(46in wide, 22in deep, 103.5in high).
It had previously appeared at the Bonham's saleroom in London.
Provenance: This lot was removed from the Foreign Press
Association, Carlton House Terrace, London where it stood in the entrance hall
for some years.
It was reputedly acquired from the Criterion Theatre at
Piccadilly Circus. This sculpture is made from plaster and composition stone
rather that painted metal as written in the catalogue.
The Union Club had taken over the two buildings in 1923
The Foreign Press Association were at 10 and 11 Carlton House Terrace in the 1950's
As yet I have not received any confirmation of this provenance.
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16827/lot/63/
Up date - this cast came to the market in 2022 with London Dealer James Graham Stewart
when it was exhibited at the Masterpiece fair in London, and was subsequently sold.
This post was created to examine and record a detailed history of the Scheemakers stone version at Wilton House. The pose of the Wilton Statue is very similar and it is carved in the round but the pedestal that he is leaning on is quite different from the Westminster monument.
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It would appear that this a full size cast of the marble on Westminster the monument.
This suggests to me that the cast was taken of the marble before the statue left the Scheemakers workshop, possibly John Cheere who almost certainly provided the much reduced plaster from Kirkleatham Hall, now in York Museum. This was taken from a terracotta maquette signed and dated 1740 see the images below.
The marks of the sculptors tools used to model the original terracotta are plainly visible.
This also might suggest some sort of working relationship between Scheemakers and John Cheere whose workshop was close by at Stone Bridge, on what became Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner.
It is always possible that the statue was taken down from the monument at some point in its history and a cast taken but the logistics of this make it appear very unlikely to me.
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The Kirkleatham Plaster Statuette of Shakespeare,
probably cast from the original terracotta maquette by Peter Scheemakers.
Signed and dated 1740.
Supplied to Chomley Turner (1685 - 1757) of Kirkleatham Hall, Yorkshire by John Cheere in 1749.
Supplied at the same time were a further 9 plaster statuettes and 9 plaster busts.
Height 19.5 inches.
Statuettes of Homer,
Spenser, Pope, Milton, Inigo Jones, Newton, Locke, Rubens and Van Dyck (both after M
Rysbrack).
Some of these busts were based on the work of contemporary sculptors, Peter Scheemakers
(1691-1781), Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770), and Louis François Roubiliac
(1695-1762); others were probably original creations by Cheere,
based on engravings.
The bust of Matthew Prior (1664-1721), poet and
diplomat, derives from the marble bust by the French sculptor, Antoine
Coysevox, which is on Rysbrack’s 1723 funerary monument to Prior in
Westminster Abbey.
The busts of Bacon and Dryden are loosely based on
busts by Peter Scheemakers, while the very youthful looking one of
Addison imitates an engraving by George Vertue of a painting by
Kneller.
The busts of Cicero and Horace were taken from casts of antique
originals,
The origin of the designs
for the busts of Swift, Congreve, and Clark is uncertain.
Henry Cheere supplied the full size statue of Chomley Turner for his Mausoleum at Kirkleatham. He is depicted in the same pose as the Craggs and later Shakespeare monuments at Westminster.
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The Full Size Plaster Cast from the Westminster Monument.
A full size version of Scheemakers Statue of Shakespeare.
Plaster.
(Private Collection).
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The Scheemakers Sale, 10th & 11th March 1756.
Under the heading Marbles etc.
.
First Day, under the heading Marbles etc. Lot 57. Bust of Shakespeare. £14 0s 6d.
Second Day, Under the heading Marbles etc. Lot 59. Statue of Shakespeare.- s, £13 1s.
Images Courtesy Wellcome Library.
This might refer to the Plaster cast pictured here but it is possible that it refers to the marble statuette sold at Sotheby's New York. 20 Oct 2022, Lot 372. Illustrated below.
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The Westminster Abbey Shakespeare Monument.
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The Sotheby's Marble Statuette.
New York. 20 Oct 2022, Lot 372.
Catalogued as late 19th Century.
The Scheemakers Sale of 1756 on the Second Day, Under the heading Marbles etc. Lot 59. included a "Statue of Shakespeare", sold for £13 1s.
This might refer to the Plaster Cast pictured above, but it is more likely that it refers to the marble statuette sold at Sotheby's New York. 20 Oct 2022, Lot 372. Illustrated below.
Height: 24 1/4 in.; 61.6 cm width: 16 1/2 in.; 41.9 cm
There is no reason to describe this very fine work as late 19th century except for lazy cataloguing.
The sculptor would have had to have access to an original in order to reproduce it so closely.
It should also be noted that the back of the pedestal is much less truncated.
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