Post in preparation.
The Terracotta Busts of the Laughing and Crying Boys.
Attributed to Joseph Nollekens 1737 - 1823).
National Museum of Scotland.
Both busts - Height 34.3 cm.
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-search-results/head-boy/398771
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-search-results/head-boy/398772
The websites only include the sparsest of details - no mention of provenance or when purchased.
Obviously damaged and mended at some point in their lives.
I suspect not by Nollekens - possibly Roubiliac.
There are 6 versions of a laughing boy which are listed in the Roubiliac Sale Catalogue of 1762 -
2nd day x 3 - lots 22 - 4;
3rd day x 2 lots 25 and 64;
4th day lot 33;
Also non the 4th day lot 24. a Crying boy.
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Roubiliac and the Laughing Boy.
sold among Roubiliac's effects, at the posthumous sale over four days at the Roubiliac studio on 12 May 1762 and the following three days.
Third day under the heading of Sundries in Plaister.
Lot 25. A laughing fawn, a saints head, a laughing boy and a pug dog.
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The Hermitage Smiling Child.
Joseph Nollekens.
undated.
Height 27 cms
Entered the collection prior to 1859.
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
It would be useful to have more photographs of this masterful bust.
It is obviously related to the Chelsea / Roubiliac busts depicted in this post.
I have in the past put together another blog post on more sculptures of the laughing and crying children by Roubiliac and the Chelsea models.
see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/06/john-hamilton-mortimer.html
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The Bronze Laughing Child.
Lot 328 2 Feb 2018. Sotheby's New York.
It would be useful to see how it is attached to the white statuary marble socle/ base in order to make comparison with the bronze below.
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The Dreweatts Bronze Laughing Child.
Lot 37, 28 June 2018.
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The Victoria and Albert Museum Bronzes.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O165993/laughing-child-bronze-head-unknown/
Maximum height: 40cm Maximum width: 16cm Maximum depth: 14cm
On later bases.
The V and A say -
The authorship and date of the known bronze versions are uncertain, although certain references point to an eighteenth-century origin, and to Roubiliac's probable authorship.
A version of the Laughing Head, probably of plaster, is depicted in John Hamilton Mortimer's Self-Portrait with Joseph Wilton of c. 1765. Various plaster items in Roubiliac's sale catalogue of 1762 could refer to models and moulds of the heads, including one 'crying boy', moulds for a pair of 'naked busts', and casts of these, as well as the moulds of 'a young child', 'a laughing boy', and 'a boy's head'. 'Two sculptural figures in marble, laughing and crying boy' are catalogued in William Smith's sale in 1800, followed immediately by a work by Roubiliac.
A nineteenth-century marble bust version is in the V&A's collection (A.5-1982).
Another marble signed by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) is in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, and probably dates from c.1780.
It is likely that Nollekens made this as a copy after an earlier version in bronze, or perhaps plaster, rather than originating the composition (which is first seen in a painting of c. 1765; see below).
Two bronzes (one illustrated, both in private British collections) were mentioned in an early publication in The Connoisseur in 1938.
Another bronze is in the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, and yet another in a private American collection; a fifth is in a private British collection, and is currently on long-term loan to the V&A.
Versions appeared in the sale rooms in 1982, 1987 and 1990.
All these bronzes show
slight differences in detail and in size. The present one is a good cast, with a rich gold-brown
patina..
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Another Terracotta Laughing Child.
Possibly related to the National Museum of Scotland Heads!
Sold Bonham's, London Lot 175, 18 April 2012.
22.3cm high.
I don't usually publish the results of the sale of objects but in this case the sculpture made £1500 including the premium.
What am I missing here? Why so cheap?
Has someone purchased a bargain? Is it a Macquette / Modello by Roubiliac?
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The Chelsea Porcelain Laughing Boy.
18.5 cms
Sold Bonham's, London, Lot 175, 18 April 2012.
Lot 174 in the same sale as the terracotta above.
Extract from the (very detailed) catalogue entry below.
In his 1992 catalogue Dr Penny hints at possible sources of inspiration, starting with major works by Bernini in Rome. Two of the most celebrated of Bernini's angels are his magnificent Angel Administering Intolerable Pleasures to St Teresa, in the church of S Maria della Vittoria, and his equally dramatic Angel Lifting Habbakkuk by a Lock of Hair, in the Chigi Chapel of S Maria del Popolo.
These predate Bernini's Gloria in the Cathedra Petri in St Peter's Basilica, a monumental gilded relief carved with joyful angels, created between 1657 and 1666.
These Bernini angels and the
Chelsea head seem to share the same cheeks, mouths and pointed locks of hair.
They differ in the way the Chelsea model exhibits slanting eyes and a slightly
more exotic look, which Dr Penny suggests may be the result of the development
of Bernini's style by (Balthasar) Permoser.
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Image below from
Making London Porcelain—A Multidisciplinary Project
Connecting Local Communities with the Technological and Innovation Histories of
London’s Early Porcelain Manufacturers.
Available on line -
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/6/2/105
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The Ashmolean Laughing Child.
Chelsea Porcelaine
It was donated to the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, by Cyril da Costa Andrade in 1965, in honour of Sir Winston Churchill and was from the collection of C.T. Fowler who is said to have discovered it in a London shop, shortly before August 1938.
From 1938 until the discovery of the present lot in 2011 it was believed to be unique.
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Laughing Child.
Marble bust on Dove Grey Turned Marble Socle.
Sold Christie's.
? 2019.
Height 39 cms.
from - https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/LAUGHING-CHILD/DD4DD74D1D94DEA1
The information about the sale of this object seems to have disappeared!
Is this the bust in the painting by Mortimer below?
The size and turned Dove Grey Marble socle are suggestive.
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Self portrait of John Hamilton Mortimer with a student,
and the bust of the Laughing Boy.
It depicts the student holding a cast of a bust perhaps of
Chryssipus of Soli (a marble version is in the Louvre - see below).
