Saturday 9 March 2019

A Miniature Bust of Alexander Pope by or after Roubiliac

 

Alexander Pope.

A Miniature Marble Bust 

by or after Roubiliac.

Private Collection.

























This little bust is a version of the first dated bust of Pope by Louis Francois Roubiliac of 1738 at Temple Newsam.
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There are three distinct versions of the inscribed and dated Roubiliac busts of Pope.
see images below for comparisons.

see - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/01/thethree-types-of-roubiliac-pope-busts.html



The first version is the 1738 Temple Newsam Bust, repeated with the William Seward Bust and now with this miniature bust. There appears to be no terracotta prototype surviving.


The second type is the Milton / Fitzwilliam marble bust dated 1740 originally with Lord Mansfield at Kenwood House - again no prototype appears to have survived. The Roger Warner bust of Pope is of this type. There are several plaster versions of this bust including those at Holkham and Hughenden. The Sotheby bronze and the miniature at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath are also versions of this bust.
Nollekens used this bust for his two versions in marble paired with his bust of Sterne.



The third version is the Barber terracotta type, which is the prototype or original modell for   the Shipley / Garrick marble dated 1741, (a plaster at Felbrigg), the Saltwood Castle marble bust, the Windsor Castle bust, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the bust now in the Rosebery / Rothschild Collection and the bust now in the Yale Centre of British Arts.  The slightly smaller British Museum Plaster and the smaller Stourhead plaster are also versions of this bust.

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The Temple Newsam bust is inscribed and dated.

A.POPE
AE.50
L.F. Roubiliac
Sc. ad vivum
1738.



Alexander Pope.
1738 

Temple Newsam







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For the Vandewall / William Seward marble bust:

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/01/in-following-blog-entries-i-intend-to.html


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The Miniature bust compared with the signed and dated Temple Newsam Bust of Pope.








The Barber Terracotta Bust, the Temple Newsam Bust and the Miniature Bust for comparison.





The Miniature Bust, the Seward Bust and the Temple Newsam Bust for comparison.