A Lead Statue of a Reclining Nymph. John Cheere - Private Collection.

Post in preparation.

The subject of these reclining figures and sculpture at West Wycombe is something that I hope to return to in the future.

There are only two versions of this statue illustrated below that I am so far aware of  - the one below in the colour photographs and the one illustrated below in black and white in private garden at West Wycombe Park.

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

A Lead Statue of a Reclining Bacchante or Nymph. 

In her left hand she has a bunch of grapes.

In a Private Collection along with 11 other lead statues since 1808. Known to have been purchased at the sale of the contents of the workshop of John Cheere after he died.

Another version is in the Dashwood Collection at West Wycombe Park  - previously on the cascade was paired with another reclining figure which has been variously described as Cleopatra or Ariadne based on ancient precedents in the Vatican or Uffizi.

At this stage I am unable to state when they went to West Wycombe - the cascade was not rebuilt until the 1770's ? check this! - previously it was adorned with a bearded statue of a reclining river god.

The subject matter of this piece would certainly have appealed to Francis Dashwood.

see - Sculpture and the Garden, Patrick Eyres · 2017.

Photographed by the author July 2025.

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

The West Wycombe Bacchante or Reclining Nude.

Lead Statue.

This figure is now in the private garden at West Wycombe having been replaced along with the figure of Cleopatra? with fibreglass copies on the cascade in the park below the house.

Image from the Conway Library

The Stourhead Lead Ariadne in the Grotto.

The Nymph of the Grotto.

Attributed to John Cheere.

Size - 865 x 1700 mm.

Note to self  -Was this from a cast supplied by Matthew Brettingham II (back in London from Rome 1754)?

Mentioned in a letter from William Hoare to Henry Hoare II, 5 June 1760. (check this).

Horace Walpole writes in 1762 'Cleopatra, but without the Asp, to represent a Nymph.

Mentioned by Sir John Parnell in 1769, Vol II fol 85. (The Stourhead Landscape, Kenneth Woodbridge pub. 1982.)

The Grotto was extended in 1776.

Unfortunately there is no record of when it was purchased by Henry Hoare.

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

The Vatican Ariadne.

Roman Marble.

Once believed to represent Cleopatra - she wears a snake bracelet.

For a very good overview see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Ariadne

Another perhaps finer version of the sculpture that was traditionally described as Cleopatra was in the collections at the Villa Medici, Rome. It was taken to Florence in 1787, Today it is at the Uffizi Gallery.