Marble Bust of Oliver Cromwell, Sotheby's Milan Sale -
The Collection of Giovanni Pratesi.
I suspect that this was an added lot.
Here attributed to the Danish sculptor Lawrence Anderson Holme (fl 1759 -1777).
Exhibited at the Society of Arts 1766 (Graves 1907).
I have already posted at great length a series of essays on the portrait busts of Oliver Cromwell.
To be sold Sotheby's Milan, Lot 117, 22 March 2023.
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/giovanni-pratesi-the-florentine-eye/attributed-to-the-workshop-of-michael-rysbrack?locale=en
Sotheby's Catalogue say - Attributed to the workshop of Michael Rysbrack.
See my post for the Rysbrack unsigned or dated Littleton terracotta bust of Cromwell at the National Maritime Museum, the Queens House, Greenwich. This terracotta bust was presumably the bust Lot 61 sold in the Rysbrack sale of 14 Feb 1767 -
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/01/terracotta-bust-of-oliver-cromwell-by.html
The Holme bust pictured below was previously offered for sale by Sotheby's New York in 2012. It failed to sell.
see my previous post -
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/05/bust-of-cromwell-by-lawrence-anderson.html
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The bust of Cromwell
(once believed lost) by the Danish born sculptor Lawrence Anderson Holme (Holm) (fl.1759
- 74) is recorded as exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1766.
see - The Biographical Dictionary of English Sculptors....pub
Yale, 2009.
It is my firm belief that this bust is the missing bust of Cromwell by Lawrence Anderson Holme.
Marble, on a granite base.
Bust: 61cm., 24in.
Base: 12cm., 4¾in.
There is no doubt that this bust is of Oliver Cromwell and similar in form to the busts by Michael Rysbrack - The Terracotta is in the Queen's House, Greenwich, and a Bronze in a private collection, but there are several variations. I suspect that Lawrence Anderson Holme was an assistant or subcontracted to Michael Rysbrack.
The socle is a replacement. The form of the current base/ socle is not a shape used by Rysbrack but is similar to those sometimes used in the 17th Century.
The deeply cut chiseled back is also very unusual in an English bust of the 18th Century.
................................
Oliver Cromwell.
Marble Bust.
Here attributed to Lawrence Anderson Holme (fl. 1759 - 1774).
see A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain pub Yale 2009.
Height 63.5 cms.
Sotheby's, New York. Lot 356 - 26, January 2012.
Provenance: Sue Erpf van Bovenkamp (d. 2011).
Probably sold by London dealer Cyril Humphris of Bond Street.
see - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014_08_29_archive.html
for the busts of Newton and Pope
Sotheby's describe this bust as workshop of Rysbrack.
There is no further information in the catalogue.
A little soap and water was all that was needed to reinvigorate this bust.
Photographs Courtesy Sotheby's, New York.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.356.html#.
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A marble bust of Cromwell formerly at Langley Park. Norfolk.
Whilst it is impossible to say for certain this definitely looks like the Holme bust of Cromwell.
Langley Park, Loddon, Norfolk.
The first published reference to a marble bust of Cromwell by Roubiliac appears in -
A General History of the County of Norfolk, edited by John Chambers, pub. 1829.
(Although the attribution here to Roubiliac is definitely a mistake).
On page 845 - in the entry on Langley Park it refers to "Four colossal busts of William II, George I, Hampden, and Oliver Cromwell - Roubiliac on termes of curious Alabaster Fiorito Marble" in the Central Division of the Garden Gallery.
see my post -
.......................................................
Lawrence Anderson Holme (fl. c. 1759 -74).
A few biographical details.
Lawrence (Lauritz) Anderson Holme (various spellings). fl. 1759 until after 1775.
From Page 636. A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain - 1660 - 1851. pub Yale 2009.
...................
1761.
A catalogue of the pictures, sculptures, models, drawings,
prints, &c. : exhibited by the Society of Artists of Great Britain, at the
great room in Spring-Garden, Charing Cross, May the 9th, 1761, (being the
second year of their exhibition).
A bas - relievo - Aeneas carrying his father Anchises.
excerpt from the Catalogue -
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t49p5tz8t&seq=20
In 1762 he made the model of the State Coach designed by William Chambers (the Builder 1854, 72 repeats the assertion made in From Ancient Topography of London......... by Smith, John Thomas, 1766 -1833. published in 1815. see - https://archive.org/details/b3045671x this suggests perhaps that he had a working relationship with the sculptors Joseph Wilton and G.B. Capizzoldi..
Whilst with Atkinson in 1763/4 he received a premium from the Society of Arts for a relief of "The parting of Hector and Andromache.
In 1764 Joseph Rose II became his apprentice.
In 1765 Holme received further premiums from the Society of Arts for Adonis Sleeping.
In 1768 he participated in a special exhibition held by the Society of Artists to honour the visit of the King of Denmark exhibiting two busts.
In 1769 Holme exhibited a bust of the King of Denmark.
...................
Below Entry from the Exhibition Catalogue of the Society of Artists, 1st May 1769. In the Great Room at Spring Gardens, Charing Cross. He exhibited two busts of Gentlemen
His name spelt Holm and address given as Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square.
In 1771 Holme received the not insubstantial sum of £408 for works at "Great Room near Exeter Exchange2 which the Society of Artists had built for their exhibitions.
Above Entry from the Exhibition Catalogue of the Society of Artists, 1st May 1769. In the Great Room at Spring Gardens, Charing Cross.
His name spelt Holm and address given as Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square.
In 1771 Holme received the not insubstantial sum of £408 for works at "Great Room near Exeter Exchange2 which the Society of Artists had built for their exhibitions.
Monuments by Anderson Holme.
1759. Monument to Sir Edward Hulse, Wilmington, Churchyard. Kent.
1763. Abigail Prowse, Axbridge, Somerset.
1767. Thomas Prowse and 7 family members. Axbridge, Somerset. (Pevsner Somerset & Nth Bristol. 1958).
.............................
All the following works are untraced.
Statues.
1765 Oedipus expounding the Riddle of the Sphinx. Society of Arts premium. RSA Minutes.
1767. Sophonisba about to drink the poison as she comes out of the bath. Society of Arts premium. RSA Minutes
1773. Figure sketch for a statue Exhibited at Society of Artists. Graves
..............................
Busts.
1762.Unidentified Gent. Exhib. Soc. of Artists. see - Graves
1766. Oliver Cromwell. Exhib. Soc. of Artists. Graves (perhaps that illustrated above).
1768. George Grenville. Special Exhibition, Soc. of Artists. Graves
1768, Unidentified Gent (model) Exhib Soc. of Artists. Graves
1768. Unidentified lady. Exhib. Soc. of Artists. Graves
1769. The King of Denmark Model, Exhib Soc. of Artists. Graves
1769. Unidentified Gentleman, Exhib Society of Artists. Graves
1769. Unidentified Gentleman, Exhib Society of Artists. Graves
1770. Unidentified nobleman, Exhib Society of Artists. Graves
1770. Unidentified Gentleman, Exhib Society of Artists. Graves
..........................
From the 1772 Catalogue of the Society of Artists - Holm FSA of Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square.
Bust of a Gentleman.
Model of Hercules
1772, Sophonisba.
see - The Society of Artists of Great Britain 1760-1791, The Free
Society of Artists 1761-1783 : a complete dictionary of contributors and their
work from the foundation of the societies to 1791 / by Algernon Graves, F.S.A.
1907.
...............................
--------------------------
Ref. Stratford House, Stratford Place and Lauritz Holm (Lawrence Anderson Holme).
Built in the Adam Style for Edward Stratford Second Earl of Aldborough
Stratford House, now the Oriental Club.
The ground taken jointly by Yonge and Selby was built up over a number of years, before Selby assigned his interest to Yonge in 1779, with stables and coach-houses in Stratford Mews and small houses on Marylebone Lane, including what became the Prince of Wales or Wigmore pub at the corner of the mews.
The builders here included William Arrow, carpenter, who set up his yard and workshop at the back of the houses.
Some remaining ground at the irregular north end of the estate, partly abutting Wigmore Street, was let by Stratford in 1775 to the Danish sculptor Lauritz or Lawrence Anderson Holm, then of Castle Street, for a house and workshop.
The rest was absorbed into the Wigmore Street plots off the estate developed by the Piccadilly violin-maker Thomas Smith, one at least also leased to Holm. Note 11.
Apart from the Lysters, Herring and Calze, the only builder
definitely associated with developing Stratford Place is the mason John
Devall II, to whom Sayre assigned his lease of the new house No. 1 in
December 1773. Few of the surnames given in the surviving notes of Stratford’s
transactions with Mayne’s bank in 1771–8 can be confidently linked to work at
Stratford Place.
An exception is ‘Holm’ – Stratford’s lessee Lauritz Holm the
sculptor. Payments to him between June 1774 and December 1777 amounted
to £470.
Very few pieces by him are known, though he was a
significant figure in his day. That Stratford seems to have owned his masterpiece
Sophonisba with the cup of poison (see below) could point to him as the author
of some of the Stratford House chimneypieces and the carving in the
pediment.
Among others, ‘Westmacott’ must be the sculptor Richard Westmacott
I. He was paid £40 in February 1774: an early date, perhaps relating to 22
Stratford Place or 160 Oxford Street rather than Stratford House. ‘Wallis’,
paid £334 4s in March 1775, may be the stone-carver John Wallis, while ‘Rhodes’,
paid £100 in December 1774, may be the plasterer William Rhodes, a
subscriber to George Richardson’s 1776 Book of Ceilings.
Art works included paintings attributed to Andrea del Sarto, Canaletto, Carracci, Rubens and Titian;
bronzes; marble busts; and a marble nude statue of Sophonisba, ‘elaborate
and singularly fine’.
This last was possibly the prize-winning work of 1767 by
Lauritz Holm depicting the Carthaginian suicide, Holm being one of the
most important craftsmen employed by Stratford. 57
Several chimneypieces at Stratford House have excellent
carving, in particular that in the front drawing room with its figures
of Fame and Mars, the supporters of the Stratford arms (Ill. 6.17). They
appear too in the pediment over the entrance to the house, where their
treatment is animated (Ill. 6.15). The library chimneypiece, with its frieze
representing branches of art and science, is also of high quality (Ill. 6.18).
1 Jan 1777 Lauritz Holm took out fire insurance with the sun Insurance Co. - Reference 1777
SUN 1 258 13\11\79 ML on a property in Wigmore Street.
https://www.londonlives.org/browse.jsp?div=fire_1775_1780_112_11231&terms=statuary#highlight
................................
The Monument to Thomas Prowse.
Lawrence Anderson Hulme.
Axminster Church.
Images from Google Street View.
___________
Monument to Edward Hulse d.1759.
In the Church Yard, Winnington, Kent.
In 1763 Lawrence Anderson Holme exhibited a bust of Edward Hulse at the Society of Artists (this bust is as yet unaccounted for).
In Ancient Topography... by JT Smith records that Lawrence Anderson Holme was responsible for the model of the State Coach designed by William Chambers, which suggests that he was associated with Wilton and Cappizoldi, whose involvement in this venture is well documented. In 1764 Holme was working with William Atkinson (d.1766) (see biog below).
Joseph Rose II was his apprentice - Holme received premiums from the Society of Artists for classical subjects in 1765 - when he was recorded as living 'next door to the Kings Arms, Hyde Park Corner' he returned to Denmark in about 1774.
Virtually all his recorded work has disappeared but the monument to Sir Edward Hulse d 1759 in the churchyard at St Michaels, Wilmington in Kent survives a bust of Sir Edward is recorded exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1763) and two mural monuments (to Abigal and Thomas Prowse) are in Axbridge Church.
...........................
From Ancient Topography of London; containing not only views of
buildings which in many instances no longer exist, and for the most part were
never before published; but some account of places and customs either unknown,
or overlooked by the London historians by Smith, John Thomas, 1766-1833.
The state Coach of Queen Anne. It was extremely heavy in its
ornaments, but the pannels were beautifully painted by Sir James Thornhill. A friend of
mine, Mr. Renton, is in possession of a part of one. The Earl of Carlisle, who did
me the honour to shew me a representation of this coach, most excellently painted by
Marco Ricci, has liberally given me permission to make an etching of it. This coach served
Kings George the First and Second, and was used by our present King, when he first went
to the House of Lords, and also on his marriage ; after which it was broken up; and
Sir William Chambers recommended the late Joseph Wilton, Esq. R. A. and Mr. Pugello,
to conduct the building of the present carriage, which was executed on the scite of the
late Mr. Malone’s house in Queen Anne Street East, and is certainly in many parts highly
deserving notice.
The model was made from Sir William’s design by Lawrence Anderson Holme, a
Dane, who in 1765 gained a premium from the Society of Arts of 147/. for the best
statue in marble.
The greatest part of the carving of the coach was executed by Nicholas Collett, a
little man, and, from his superior abilities, was honoured by Mr. Waldron the
actor, with the characteristic epithet of a “Garrick of a carver.” (Mr. Waldron was originally a
wood-carver.)
Mr. Cipriani painted the pannels, and received the sum of 800/ for his
performance. The bill for the coach was 9,000/., but it was taxed, and the real cost was 7,564/. 4v.
4 \d .; the odd pence arose from the ribbon-weaver’s bill. It was first used Nov. 15, 1762.
https://archive.org/details/b3045671x
..........................................
Cromwell after Samuel Cooper.
Engraved by George Vertue, 1732.
...................................
Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.
Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell, Lord
Protector of England (1599-1658), circa 1653, three-quarters sinister, wearing
a white lawn collar, brown background (unfinished), the reverse set with a
bloodstone plaque. On vellum oval, 3 1/8in. high. On view at Bowhill House,
Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust
...............................
Oliver Cromwell (c.1650),
Samuel Cooper.
Miniature.
Image from the website of Apollo Magazine.
By kind permission
of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry KBE.
see -
https://www.apollo-magazine.com/cooper/
......................................
Oliver Cromwell.
Christian Richter. (after Samuel Cooper).
1708.
Painted on vellum - Image size: 10.5 x 8.5 cm.
Frame size: 15.6 x 14 cm.
Wallace Collection
https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org:443/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=64273&viewType=detailView
This portrait derives from the portrait of Oliver Cromwell
in armour by Samuel Cooper, signed and dated 1656 (now in the National Portrait
Gallery; NPG 3065), which was in turn based on Cooper’s famous unfinished
portrait of Cromwell in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch. Cooper’s
miniatures of Cromwell were celebrated for their frank naturalism.
The miniature is attributed to the Swedish goldsmith and
painter Christian Richter (1678-1732), who worked in England from 1702 until
his death. In the first decade of the eighteenth century, Richter made a number
of copies after Cooper’s portraits of Cromwell, particularly versions of the
Buccleuch portrait.
The inscription ‘Sum possessor/C Richter 1708’ on the
reverse indicates that Richter owned one of Cooper’s versions of the portrait.
...........................
For more on Samuel Cooper see -
https://philipmould.com/exhibitions/12-warts-and-all-the-portrait-miniatures-of-samuel-cooper/
Cromwell by Peter Lely (1618 - 80) after Samuel Cooper.
Mezzotint of Oliver Cromwell after Samuel Cooper by Peter Lely.
Mezzotint c. 1730
Pub. Joseph Sympson (d. 1736).
Royal Collection.
Previously in the collection of Joseph Gulston; prints
dispersed in 1786 sale.
https://www.rct.uk/collection/602227/oliver-cromwell
.....................................
Cromwell after Lely after Cooper.
Royal Collection.
There are four different examples of this mezzotint in the Royal Collection.
...........................................
Oliver Cromwell
After Samuel Cooper.
Oil on canvas, feigned oval, based on a work of 1656.
29 3/4 in. x 24 3/4 in. (756 mm x 629 mm).
Purchased, 1879.
Primary Collection.
NPG 514.
see -
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw01602/Oliver-Cromwell
.....................................
Oliver Cromwell.
After Rysbrack.
Gaspar van der Hagen d. 1769.
Ivory Relief.
image from the Paul Mellon photographic Archive.
see - V and A collection website.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89694/oliver-cromwell-1599-1658-relief-van-der-hagen/
Almost certainly once fixed to a box, along with other ivory
reliefs. Brought in for opinion to the V&A in 1970. Sold at Sotheby's,
London, 8 December, 1988, lot 398. On loan to the Museum since 1992. Loan
transferred into gift and given to the museum by J. H. J. Lewis O.B.E. in 2016.
...............................
Oliver Cromwell, Inigo Jones, John Milton and William
Shakespeare.
After Michael Rysbrack.
Here attributed to Gaspar van der Hagen.
Four Ivory Reliefs.
Each 11.5cms high.
Sold Christies, London.
Lot 68 8th July 2010.
Three of the reliefs are after busts by Rysbrack while the
fourth - the bust of Shakespeare - is derived from the full-length marble executed by
Rysbrack's contemporary, Peter Scheemakers, for the playwright's monument in
Westminster Abbey.
Another set of four
oval ivory reliefs - portraits of Milton, King Alfred, Queen Elizabeth and
Cromwell were sold at Sotheby's London, 8 December 1988, lots 398-401.
...............................
The Tangye Marble bust of Oliver Cromwell.
Now known not to be the bust by Lawrence Anderson Holme but a much inferior version of the Rysbrack bust.
This sadly distressed version is buried somewhere deep in the stores in the Museum of London.
Images kindly supplied by Danielle Thom, Curator of Making at the Museum of London.
see my previous post -
The Tangye Bust of Oliver Cromwell.
Museum of London.
The Sotheby's Milan Bust is much closer to this bust - perhaps the original.
The quality of the Sotheby's bust is far superior to the Tangye bust.
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The Queen's House bust of Oliver Cromwell - the original terracotta by Rysbrack.
Photographed by the author.
___________________
Bronze version of the Rysbrack Terracotta in a private collection.
Photographed by the author, with the kind permission of the owner.
--------------------
