Post under construction.
The work of John Cheere the younger brother of Henry Cheere has for long been a fascination for me. He has until recently been dismissed as a mere manufacturer - producer of multiples of statues and busts in both lead and plaster.
Whilst it is very difficult to tell how much of the sculpture if any was actually modelled by him. I believe that it is time his reputation was retrieved and that his contribution to eighteenth century sculpture should be reassessed.
It has long been my suspicion that Louis Francois Roubiliac was working with the Cheere brothers after his arrival in London from the continent in 1730 modelling busts in marble and lead.
Roubiliac moved into the not insubstantial premises on the North East side of St Martin's Lane in 1740.
Prior to that he was in Peters Court off St Martins Lane and Hemmings Row, but it is not clear whether this was the location of his workshop.
I suspect that Roubiliac's relationship with the brothers lasted at least well into the 1740's.
The 1740's appeared to have been a relatively quiet period for Roubiliac after the triumph of the statue of Handel for Vauxhall Gardens - his first major monument to Bishop Hough was put up in Worcester Cathedral in 1747.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/02/chronological-list-of-roubiliac.html
Of John Cheere's five known apprentices and assistants, two of these men later started independent businesses. James Hoskins, who was taken apprentice by Cheere in 1747, became ‘moulder and caster in plaster’ at the newly founded Royal Academy in 1769 and in 1774 formed a partnership with another former apprentice, Benjamin Grant.
Hoskins and Grant were in St Martin's Lane in 1788 probably from 1775. They supplied plaster casts to the firm of Wedgwood and Bentley including a bust of Matthew Prior. See - The Life of Josiah Wedgwood: From His Private Correspondence and Family Papers ... with an Introductory Sketch of the Art of Pottery in England, Volume 2. Hurst and Blackett, 1866. see - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KpxGAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Hoskins+and+Grant%22+London&source=gbs_navlinks_s
The others, of whom nothing is known, were John Fulford, Richard Breach and John Candy, all listed as Cheere’s apprentices in the London Evening Post on 10-12 December 1751 when they testified to the efficacy of a cure for William Collins’s ulcerous leg using "Ron Pear Tree Water"
William Collins (1721 - 93) was apprenticed to Henry Cheere He is described as figure maker in The London Evening Post. JT Smith described him as "the most famous modeller of Chimney tablets of his day" Nollekens.... pub 1828)
John Cheere died a wealthy man and was buried in his brother’s vault in Clapham. His profits had been converted into leases and freeholds of 15 properties in the City and Westminster including several in St Martins Lane. He left cash bequests of over £5,000 of which £900 was earmarked for charitable causes.
his nephew Charles Cheere inherited the entire contents of the yards, shop and showrooms in Piccadilly and offered the Royal Academy the choice of his uncle’s casts. They selected a St Susanna.
The residue went to auction in 1788 and were bought by ‘a man from the Borough [of Southwark]’. At a second sale in 1812, Samuel Whitbread, bought 20 statues
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The Bedfordshire house has been the home of the Whitbread family for over 200 years. The house was bought in 1795 by Samuel Whitbread I, the brewer, from Viscount Torrington whose unfortunate uncle, Vice-Admiral the Hon John Byng, was shot at Portsmouth in 1757 for an unfortunate error of judgement whilst in Command of the Fleet.
The earliest known owner of Southill was Sir John Kelynge, “a violent Cavalier”, who succeeded Hyde as Lord Chief Justice in 1663. His son sold the property to Admiral Sir George Byng, later Viscount Torrington.
Samuel Whitbread I died in 1796, a year after buying Southill and his son, Samuel Whitbread II, a prominent Whig politician, employed Henry Holland to rebuild the existing house. Holland was the fashionable architect of the day; he reconstructed Carlton House for The Prince of Wales (later George IV) and other examples of his work may be seen at Woburn, Ampthill, The Swan Hotel in Bedford, and at Althorp.
In 1812, the brewer Samuel Whitbread, purchased 20 statues for £975, with 15 of them being placed in the gardens in the Bedfordshire garden.
British History Online states that the statue of Shakespeare was presented to the
Theatre Royal Drury Lane by Samuel Whitbread II (1764 - 1815) in 1809? and placed on the
portico some time after 1820 Whitbread had purchased 20 statues from the second sale of the works of John Cheere for his
garden at Southill Park in Bedfordshire for £975. 15 shillings.
I have written at some length on this statue of Shakespeare see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/02/
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The black and white photographs below were all taken from the website of the Conway Library at the Courtauld Institute.
Here is the link to the Conway Library search page -
https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/sec-menu/search/?mode=gallery&view=horizontal&sort=random%7B1747753325665%7D%20asc
Here also is the link to their copyright policy -
https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/copyright
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For a list of the works of John Cheere see -
https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/works/recordlist.php?-skip=50&-max=50
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The Lead Sculptures.
The black and white images from the Conway Library.
In no particular order.
1. Ceres.
In November 1738 The London General Post and Daily
Advertiser reported that a sculptor in St Martins Lane "last week had
finish'd a fine Venus for a person of quality.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2023/09/terracotta-attributed-to-scheemakers.html
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7. Athena with the Medusa Shield.
Cheere’s Flora is a copy of a life size Farnese Flora executed in
marble for the Pantheon at Stourhead in Wiltshire by John Michael Rysbrack
(1694-1770).The terracotta modello is in the V and A.
A small marble statuette of Flora was at Wentworth Woodhouse, Height 78 cms.
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10. A Priestess of Isis.
The figure is a copy after the second-century marble
original excavated from Hadrians Vuilla at Tivoli from the Albani Collection located in the Hall of the Galatian in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.
There is another lead version by John Cheere.at Saltram, and a plaster at Stourhead and a Plaster version in is in Los Angeles County Museum paired with a Capitoline Flora.
Another plaster paired with a Capitoline Flora at Tabley House, Knutsford, Cheshire - Leicester family collection - H 193 x W 68 x D 54 cm. (images available on ArtUK website).
It appears that shortly after 1758 the moulds for this statue and the other Brettingham casts were acquired by John Cheere
A plaster at Kedlestone and another at Holkham (image below) - possibly cast by Bartolomeo Mattevali, on behalf of Matthew Brettingham (1724-1803), cast c. 1758. A full-length plaster cast painted white of the goddess Isis or a priestess of Isis, after the Hadrianic marble in the Musei Capitolini, Rome (inv. no. Scu 744).
Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) acquired his cast of the Priestess of Isis from Matthew Brettingham (1725-1803), an architect who
primarily dealt in antiquities and casts for the British aristocracy. The cast
is listed as 'Priestess of Isis' in Curzon's manuscript 'List of Statues that I
have' (c.1760) and again in a list inscribed on the verso, under 'Saloon
Statues' (MS, Kedleston Archive). The statue was initially installed in the
Saloon (see 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston', 1758,
Saloon, p. 9), but by c. 1788-89, when the Saloon was converted into a
ballroom, it had been moved to the Great Staircase, where it stands today (see
'Catalogue', 1769, Great Staircase, p.22, annotated copy in the Getty Research
Institute, annotations date to c. 1788-9.). No receipts have been found for
this cast.
During his seven-year stint in Rome (1747-54) Brettingham not only dealt in casts and antiquities - furnishing the William Coke, Earl of Leicester, for example, with casts and marble statues for Holkham - but also commissioned actual moulds to be taken from famous Roman statues.
The idea was that casts
could then be made to order when he returned to London. The Capitoline Isis was
one of twelve moulds of antique statues Brettingham commissioned, at
considerable trouble and expense. In Brettingham's Rome Account Book, his
ledger of statues dealt, casts made, bought and sold when he was in Italy, the
records for 14 December 1753 show that a 'Mould of ye Vestal Virgin at ye
Capital' was packed and shipped from Leghorn and that in 1754 further moulds
'of ye Vestal Virgin or Priestes of Isis' were produced (Kenworthy-Browne 1983,
pp. 79, 99, 100). see -
Kenworthy-Browne 1983: John Kenworthy-Browne, 'Matthew
Brettingham's Rome Account Book 1747-1754', The Volume of the Walpole Society,
vol.49 (1983), pp.37-132, pp. 79, 99, 100
Kenworthy-Browne 1993: John Kenworthy-Browne, ‘Designing
around the statues. Matthew Brettingham’s casts at Kedleston’, Apollo, April
1993, pp.248-252
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The Holkham Isis.
Plaster cast of c. 1753.
Supplied by Matthew Brettingham the Younger.
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12. Samson Slaying the Philistine.
I have previously written about the twelve versions of this group -
see this entry and the following 11 essays/posts.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/02/samson-slaying-philistine-aka-cain-and.html
Based on the original probably cast by Richard Osgood (d. 1724), the van Nosts, and later by Andrew Carpentiere and John Cheere.
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'Recuel des Statue, Groupes, Fontaines, Termes, Vases et
Autres Mangifique Ornamens du Chateau et Parc de Versailles' pub 1723 - Simon Thomassin.
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The book, Recueil des figures, groupes, thermes, fontaines, vases, et autres ornemens tels qu’ils se voyent a present dans le Château et Parc de Versailles / / gravé d’apres les originaux par Simon Thomassin, graveur du Roy provides a comprehensive catalogue of the sculptures within the gardens at the Palace of Versailles.
Authored
and published by Simon Thomassin in 1694 in Paris this book is one of three
copies held in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Library.
Jean Edelinck, L’Hyver. Statue de marbre, haulte de sept
pieds. Dans les jardins de Versailles. Par François Girardon, de Troyes, 1680.
Gravure. Versailles, musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon,
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Winter from the Four Seasons.
The Print made by: R Smith.
Published by: Edward Cooper.
British Museum.
Jennifer Montagu pointed out these are copied from prints
after sculptures designed by Charles Le Brun in the gardens at Versailles:
'Spring' (Philippe Magnier); 'Summer' (Pierre Hutinot); 'Autumn' (Thomas
Regnaudin) and 'Winter' (François Girardon). The most likely source for them
are the Edme Jeaurat engravings issued in 1708 under the name of Bernard
Picart, see Inventaire du Fonds Français: Bibliothèque Nationale, Département
des Estampes, 1973, XII, nos. 2-5.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2017-7063-1-4?selectedImageId=1613453871
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of tangential interest.
Spring.
After Philippe Magnier (sculptor of the 'Spring' figure).
This statue was also copied by John Cheere
Flora an Allegory of Spring.
Sold Grisebach, Berlin, Germany, May 30, 2013.
Provenance -
1763 ordered by George William, 6th Earl of Coventry
(1722-1809) for 53 pounds 1 shilling and 1 pence, together with a Ceres, for
Croome Court (cf. letter of the archivist Mr John A. Partridge, the account
books of Croome Court, March 1964; in Gregor Norman-Wilcox: Two figures from
Croome Court, in: Bulletin of the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, vol. XVII
(1965), no. 3, p.14 - 32, p. 26)
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After: Thomas Regnaudin (sculptor of 'Autumn' figure).
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The Cheere version of Bacchus/ Autumn is at Waddesden Manor.
The original inspiration is the Bacchus by Michelangelo in the Bargello, Florence.
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The Drawing by Charles Le Brun.
Preparatory drawing for the sculptors of the Grande
Commande, Versailles.
Cheere probably also produced a version of Autumn / Bacchus - at Hardwick Hall.
One of six statues brought to Hardwick from Chatsworth in 1886.
of Bacchus Salome and 4 Muses?
The Antique original found in Rome in the 17th Century and entered the Borghese Collection - it was first recorded as being in the Villa Medici in Rome in 1704 and was taken to Florence in 1769.
Since arriving in Florence, the statue has always remained in the Tribuna by Buontalenti, where a accident to it occurred around 1840: a painting fell on it and sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini was charged with restoring it.
The right hand is also a modern reintegration, as well as the left arm from
below the elbow, part of the base, the nose and the hair.
It is still in the Uffizi Gallery Florence.
(C Hussey, "Southill Park", Country Life, 12th July 1930, PP 42-48; 19th July 1930, pp.80-86; 26th July 1930, pp.108-114.
C Hussey (ed.), Southill, A Regency House, London, 1951.
D. Stroud, Henry
Holland, His Life and Architecture, London, 1966.)
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The Cheeres at Longford.
Sir Jacob Bouverie Ist Viscount Folkestone, at Longford Castle in 1742, the 1st Viscount paid £3 10s. 6d. to “Cheere at Hyde-Park-Corner for 3 plaister Bustos bronz’d & cases”,and, in 1759, he paid
“Mr. Cheere for ye. Statues of Flora & [Anna] Augusta at £8:8:0 each, oyling, painting, & packing cases” as well as a supplier for “six stone Terms at £8:8:0 each” and “Mr. Devall for the Portland stone for d[itt]o”.
The lead statue of Flora is based on the Farnese Flora by John Cheere brother of Sir Henry Cheere who, had produced chimneypieces for Longford’s interiors in the 1741. 1742
The 1st Earl bought more statuary from John Cheere in 1768 and 1775.
Malcolm Baker has suggested that garden sculptures from Cheere’s Hyde Park Corner workshop were associated with the ‘cits’ and merchants of the City of London who wished to retire to the country
This ongoing patronage of the artist suggests that the family were unconcerned with the criticism that the ownership of such works might invite.
Info above from
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There are 4 lead groups at Wrest Park - Venus and Adonis, Diana and Endymion, the abduction of Helen, and Aeneas and Anchises, all on lead bases and the statue of King William III (after the statue inscribed by Sir Henry Cheere in the Bank of England).
These statues have been photographed and will appear in a later post.
For Rupert Harris and lead statue conservation see -
https://rupertharris.com/pages/the-conservation-of-lead-sculpture-common-forms-of-damage
