Bath, Art and Architecture: 08/21/24

Wednesday 21 August 2024

Portrait Sculpture at Wilton House, Part 6 Henry, 9th Earl of Pembroke by Roubiliac.

Post under construction.

The Portrait Sculpture at Wilton House, Part 6.

The Bust of Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke (1693 -1749).

The Architect Earl.

by Louis Francois Roubiliac.

The eyes are blank -

Unfortunately none of the three marble busts are in pristine condition.

This is probably the bust where the surface of the flesh is in the best original condition, although it had received several knocks particularly on the chin.

The two other marbles have (to my eye suffered from recent over enthusiastic cleaning and polishing.

All seem to show that the skin on the face is pockmarked possibly from chicken pox or smallpox - not unusual at the time. There is no record of the Earl having contracted smallpox.

.....................

The Fitzwilliam Bust of Henry Herbert, 9th Earl Pembroke.

Louis Francois Roubiliac.

Terracotta.

It appears to have undergone substantial conservation.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Bequeathed by Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam: Founders Bequest, 1816.

Images below from the Art UK website.

They fail to give the size or to mention any damage.

The quality of these images is very poor - it is difficult to understand why they post such dreadful photographs. I was going to volunteer myself for the project but the brief was too broad to be of interest to me and given the amount of time, and travel and the need to use a very expensive camera capable of hi resolution results I demurred.

Given the requirement fo their photographers to have expensive hi resolution cameras it beggars belif that they have posted such miserable examples -

Whilst useful as a guide to its appearance Art UK would have been better off using the camera of a smart phone rather than publishing these.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/henry-herbert-16931749-9th-earl-of-pembroke-frs-300352/view_as/grid/search/work_type:sculpture--makers:louis-franc_ois-roubiliac-169517021762/page/1

Provenance:

Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, FRS (1693-1749/50; Countess of Pembroke, his widow; ? ; Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (d. 1816).

Notes:

The 9th Earl of Pembroke married Mary Fitzwilliam in 1733, sister of the 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam, whose heir, Richard, was the founder of the Fitzwilliam Museum.

In The Life and Works of François Roubiliac. London: Oxford University Esdaile, Katharine A.. 1929.Pressp. p. 91. (this work is not to be entirely trusted).

Ref. p. 91, note 4, says"the inscription 'Roubilliac [sic] fec' is modern".

'The model passed first to the Countess's family, then to Cambridge along with the Hercules (pl: XIII b and now atrributed to Rysbrack R.A.B.) and the antique head of Agrippina with a pedestal by Roubiliac (Arnold's Library of the Fine Arts iv, 183, p. 1840).' ??

The marble bust, for which this was the model, and that of the Countess are at Wilton in the church; there is another of Lord Pembroke in Wilton House, and one at the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.

"Mr Gunnis's records there is a bill from Roubiliac for the bust in the church"

.......................................

Marble bust of Henry Herbert, 9th Earl Pembroke, 6th Earl of Montgomery), FRS.

Louis Francois Roubiliac.

Marble.

Sizes 24 5/8 in. (62.5 cm.) high 32¼ in. (82 cm.) high overall, including socle.

The eyes are blank.

Circa 1749.

Removed from the Monument to the 9th Earl in St Mary's Church in Wilton.

It had probably started life in one of the Pembroke's houses.

An investigation of the Pembroke inventories is needed!

Sold at Christie's London, Lot 82, 2nd Dec 1997.

Depicted facing to sinister; on an integral square marble socle carved with the Pembroke coat of arms and inscribed ‘VNG. GP. SERVERAY’.

Extract from the Christie's Sale Catalogue. Lot 83, 2nd December 1997.

"Three versions of the present bust are known. The other two, one of which is paired by a bust of the Earl's wife, Mary, the eldest daughter of Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, are at Wilton House".

Another is currently in the Birmingham Museums Store (see images below).

"Although none is signed, their attribution to Roubiliac has not been doubted since they were first discussed by Mrs. Esdaile in her monograph on the sculptor, where she also referred to a terracotta model of the bust of the Earl in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, bearing a modern inscription, 'Roubilliac [sic] fec.' (Esdaile, loc. cit.).

More recently, archival research has revealed that Roubiliac received £165 and a halfpenny in 1751 from the executors of the 9th Earl for his monument, of which the present bust formed a part (Bindman and Baker, loc. cit.).

It would appear, however, that the bust may not originally have been intended for the monument, but was more probably an independent portrait, which was subsequently enlisted for the task. It was, in any event, certainly in place as early as 3 July 1754, when it was described by Richard Pococke as having the form of 'a marble bust as against a pyramid' (Pococke, loc. cit.) ".

Photograph below courtesy dealer Lullo Pampoulides. -

https://www.lullopampoulides.com/

Provenance:

Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, by descent to his son.

Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke;

Placed on the monument to the 9th Earl of Pembroke in St. Mary’s Church, Wilton, Wiltshire, before 3 July, 1754 (when seen by Dr. Richard Pococke).

Archival research has revealed that Roubiliac received £165 and a halfpenny in 1751 from the executors of the 9th Earl for his monument, of which the present bust formed a part (Bindman and Baker.)

The bust and the lower parts of the monument were moved to the new Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Wilton, Wiltshire in 1845.

The Bust was sold (following the grant by the church court of a faculty for removal) by the 17th Earl of Pembroke (heir-at-law of the 9th Earl of Pembroke, and therefore owner of the bust) in 1997 (via Christie's) to

Professor Ian Craft, by whom sold, 2005, to

Private Collection, London.

This bust was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in the Sculpture in Britain Galleries since 2005. Where the photographs below were taken.

Sold by dealers Lullo - Pampoulides to a private collector, USA.

The bust in the church at Wilton has since been replaced with a modern copy made of resin and marble dust by Messrs Plowden & Smith - it now stands on top of the monument base.

There is a plan of c 1750? of the East end of St Mary's Church, Wilton showing the monument to the 9th Earl, in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham. Ref 2057/H3/18a.

This needs to be confirmed.

If this is the James Wyatt (1746 - 1813) drawing illustrated in the Marble Index by Malcolm Baker pub. Yale 2014 page 290 this would make the drawing considerably later (see the illustration below).

http://calmview.wiltshire.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspxsrc=CalmView.Catalog&id=2057%2f8%2f3%2f23

For a very useful summary of the Wilton papers (WSHC 2057) Wilton House And Estate Archives.

Papers of Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Fitzwilliam, Viscount Fitzwilliam deposited in Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC).

see https://humphrysfamilytree.com/Herbert/papers.html

The James Wyatt Drawing of the East end of Wilton Church.

The church at Wilton was almost completely rebuilt in the Romanesque style of a Lombardic basilica in 1844. Various monuments were transferred from the old church including the lower part of the Roubiliac monument with the bust to the 9th Earl.

......................

.....................

The Monument to Andrew Fountaine in the church at Narford, Norfolk with the bust by Roubiliac.

.........................

The Monument to Sir John Cust (1718 - 1770).

of Belton House.

c.1770.

Sculpted and inscribed by William Tyler RA (1728 - 1801) a former apprentice /assistant to Roubiliac.

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Belton, Lincolnshire.

...........................

The Bust of the 9th Earl of Pembroke.

Removed from St Mary's Church at Wilton.

Provenance: Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, by descent to his son

Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke;

Placed on the monument to the 9th Earl of Pembroke in St. Mary’s Church, Wilton, Wiltshire, before 3 July, 1754 (when seen by Dr. Richard Pococke)

The bust and parts of the monument moved to the new Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Wilton, Wiltshire in 1845;

Bust sold (following the grant by the church court of a faculty for removal) by 17th Earl of Pembroke (heir-at-law of the 9th Earl of Pembroke, and therefore owner of the bust) in 1997 (via Sotheby’s) to

Professor Ian Craft, by whom sold, 2005, to

Private Collection, London.

Exhibited: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in the Sculpture in Britain Galleries since 2005.

Dimensions - 24 5/8 in. (62.5 cm.) high; 32¼ in. (82 cm.) high overall, including socle.

present whereabouts unknown - private collector USA.

Image below from the Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/objects/406347/henry-herbert-9th-earl-of-pembroke

The image below from dealers Lullo Pampoulides.

https://www.lullopampoulides.com/notable-sales

........................

The photographs below were taken by the author whilst the bust was on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The photography was hampered by the lighting in the museum and not helped by the shininess of the surface of the marble.

Some time before its appearance at auction it had received some conservation treatment. Part of this I believe was the application of a coat of microcrystilline wax a form of wax made from petro chemicals - from my point of view a mistake - whilst it might give the surface protection from grubby fingers, it gives it a glossy polish which is too shiny and diverges from the sculptor's original. intentions.

I suspect that it might also have had some sort of abrasive used on the surface of the flesh - all of these busts show evidence of pockmarking on the flesh of the face possibly caused by Smallpox.