Post under construction.
Portrait Sculpture at Wilton House, No 5.
I am very grateful to the 18th Earl and Countess of Pembroke for allowing me to visit Wilton House with my camera and giving me free access to the sculptures outside visiting hours.
I am also very grateful to all the staff at Wilton, Charlotte Spender, Sandie Buxcie, and in particular the House Manager Nigel Bailey and all at Wilton who made me feel most welcome.
The Marble Bust of Martin Folkes (1690 - 1754.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
1749.
This marble bust has always been paired with the marble bust of Sir Andrew Fountaine also at Wilton.
Martin Folkes FRS, PSA ( 1690 -1754).
The Plaster Bust
British Museum.
Height 66.5 cms.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1762-0528-12
Plaster bust, purchased by Matthew Maty at The Posthumous Roubiliac Sale by Langford at St Martins Lane lot 10, 4th
day. and presented to the British Museum.
The Twelve Busts at the British Museum by Roubiliac.
Bought by Dr Matthew Maty at the Four Day posthumous auction
sale 12 - 15 May 1762 of the contents of the studio of Louis Francois Roubiliac
at 66 St Martins Lane, Westminster held by Messrs Langford's of the Piazza
Covent Garden on the premises at 66 St Martin's Lane and presented to the British Museum in 1762.
Aileen Dawson has written extensively on the British Museum Collection of 18th, 19th and 20th century Portrait Busts.
see - Dawson, Aileen, Portrait Sculpture, a catalogue of the
British Museum collection, c. 1675-1975, London, BMP, 1999.
see my post - Bath, Art and Architecture: 12 busts by Roubiliac in the British Museum. (bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com)
A major difference is in the delineation of the eyes - those on the marble are blank - this suggests that the plaster was moulded directly from the missing terracotta.
Unfortunately the current photographs available from the British Museum website are very old black and white studio snaps. I will endeavour to obtain better photographs in due course.
Lettered below the image with the title, and "J. Vanderbank pinxt. 1736, / I. Faber Fecit 1737, / Sold by I Faber at the Golden Head in Bloomsbury Square".
355 x 253 mm. British Museum.
NB. Bust of Isaac Newton on the wall Bracket behind.
In the Catalogue at the Welcome Library of the sale of the
collection of Martin Folkes, FRS by Langford's of the Piazza Covent Garden, 7
and 8th May 1755, under Plaister figures, 7th May lot 4, a large bust of the
earl of Pembroke, on a painted deal term, lot 5 ditto of Sir Isaac Newton on a
ditto.
If the plaster bust
in the sale is the same one as illustrated in the Faber engraving and is by
Roubiliac which seems the most likely then it is the earliest representation of
the Roubiliac busts of Newton and probably the earliest illustration of a
Roubiliac bust.
Along with the marble bust of Folkes there is also a marble
bust of the 9th Earl of Pembroke by Roubiliac at Wilton; and there was also a plaster bust of Newton now missing.
For more on the British Museum bust of Martin Folkes, the
iconography of Martin Folkes and the other busts bought by Matthew Maty at the
posthumous Roubiliac studio sale by Langfords of 1762 and presented to the
British Museum see -
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-twelve-busts-boughtby-dr-matthew.html
Verso: dated by the artist in graphite: "18 Dec.1735.", inscribed "Martin Folkes Esqr" and by Jonathan Richardson II in graphite: "Aft.[erwards] Presidt of the Royal Society".
Inscribed on Richardson's mount in pen, and on backing sheet by Horace Walpole, with the identification of the sitter
William Tyler R.A. was one of three sculptors, along with Joseph Wilton
(1722 – 1803) and Agostino Carlini (c.1718 – 1790), who were Founder Members of
the Royal Academy in 1768. He exhibited at the Academy between 1769 and 1800.
In 1739 he was elected one of the founding vice-presidents
of London's charitable Foundling Hospital for abandoned children, a position he
maintained until 1747.
Folkes was a prominent Freemason, being appointed Deputy
Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England during the year 1724–1725.
for a brief look at Folkes and Freemasonry see - https://www.1723constitutions.com/the-context/the-enlightenment/martin-folkes-prs/
Folkes’s book, the Tables of English Silver and Gold Coins (1763) was the first attempt to compile a work recording English coinage.
He travelled to Italy with his family (1733-1735) and to Paris (1739); died of a paralytic attack;
he left £200 and his seal ring to the Royal Society; the sale of his library, prints, drawings, gems, pictures, coins, etc lasted 56 days;
Memberships:
French Academy (1742); Fellow of the Society for Antiquaries
(1720, President 1750-1754); Spalding Society; Acadmie Royale des Sciences,
Paris (Foreign Fellow, 1742)
