Bath, Art and Architecture

Saturday, 2 September 2023

Terracotta Venus attributed to Scheemakers.

Terracotta Venus attributed to Peter Scheemakers.

Venus lying on a mattress, terracotta, attr. to Peter Scheemakers the Younger.

I remain to be convinced! nevertheless this is a fabulous terracotta by an (anonymous!) first rate sculptor.

I have previously visited the subject of 18th century 'English' sculptures of Venus and other naked or semi naked female figures but it is a subject worth returning to.

In 1738 Roubiliac created a Venus for Sir Andrew Fountaine.

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.

Three days later the same paper reported a "curious figure of a lady by Mr Roubillack

Height: 37cms Width: 63cms Depth: 24 cms

Art Curiale Sale: 4126.

Lot 95. 9 Nov 2021.

Provenance: Galerie Patrice Bellanger, Paris, in 1988

Exhibitions: 'The woman symbol in sculpture', Paris, Galerie Patrice Bellanger, October 1988, n. p. ( like Augustin Bocciardi ).

images from -

https://www.artcurial.com/fr/lot-attribue-peter-scheemakers-le-jeune-anvers-1691-1781-venus-allongee-sur-un-matelas-terre-0

It is interesting to me that whoever catalogued this figure had decided on an English rather than a continental sculptor. If it is English then the number of candidates for its sculptor is very limited.

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The Son of Peter Scheemakers the Elder ( 1652-1714 ), he was in Copenhagen alongside the sculptor Johann Adam Strurnberg for 3 years in around 1718, then joined the workshop of Denis Plumier in London around 1720 where he met Laurent Delvaux.

When Plumier died in 1721, together with Delvaux they completed the funeral monument of the Duke of Buckingham and worked together on various commissions.

In 1728 they sold their collection of sculptures, and models. among which is described a 'Sleeping Venus' and settled in Rome near the Spanish Steps in the Zuccari palace. During their stay of at least two years, they met English Grand Tour collectors such as Thomas Fonnereau who wrote to Samuel Hill who he met in Rome "a very clever fellow… his name is Schielmaker ... [ He ] has copied the Hermaphrodite of Borghese about 2 ft long which he asks 120 [ cru?; francs? ] "

see - Roscoe, "Scheemakers, Peter, 1691-1781", in 'A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851', New Haven and London, 2009, p.1102.

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Cleopatra ca. 1723.

Marble

Dimensions: Overall: 12 x 28 x 11 1/4 inches (30.5 x 71.1 x 28.6 cm)

Inscribed at the head of figure: "P. SCHEEMAKERS. F".

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Ariadne.

Attrib. to Delvaux.

Sold Sotheby's, 24 Jan 2002

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

A sleeping Venus (very fine) by Delvaux was noted in the Drawing Room at Sir Andrew Fountaines, Narford Hall, Norfolk - see - Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, John Preston Neale · 1820. This publication also notes the bust of Andrew Fountain by Roubiliac in the Hall, and on the staircase Prometheus chained to the rock by Cavalier David (Claude David)

see - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O67427/vulcan-or-possibly-prometheus-chained-figure-david-claude/

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A Marble Statue of the Reclining Diana.

attrib. to the workshop of Laurent Delvaux (1696 - 1778),

and Peter Scheemakers (1691 - 1781).

The Sotheby's London Sale, Defining Taste, Works Selected by Danny Katz.

Lot 86 -12 November 2013.

Scheemakers and Delvaux were in partnership in London from 1718 - 28 until they sold up and departed for Italy.

20.5 by 72.2 by 31.6cm.

This piece was sold at The Sotheby's London sale, Defining Taste, Works Selected by Danny Katz.

Lot 86 -12 November 2013.

Provenance, Christies London, Lot 46 14 December 1999.

Photographs Courtesy Sotheby's.

The Statuette above appears to be the same one that was offered at Sotheby's but it is mounted in a marble base.

It had previously been offered for sale by Sotheby's 9 July 2009.

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A Diana was in Delvaux’s and Scheemakers’s sale, April 16 1728, lot 9.

‘A sleeping Figure, by Mr Delvo’, Delvaux’s and Scheemakers’s Sale, 16 April 1728, lot 53; is untraced but it is suggested that the figure is Ariadne attrib. to Delvaux at the Yale Centre for British Art is this statuette.

I find it difficult to reconcile the obvious erotic nature of the Diana above with the more chaste Yale Ariadne and would suggest that they are not by the same sculptor.

Perhaps the pair to it was the Cleopatra at Delvaux’s and Scheemakers’s Sale, 16 April 1728, lot 6.

Another Ariadne which is attributed to Delvaux is at the Huntington Library and Museum, California. below

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Sir Francis Dashwood as St Francis of Assisi.

c. 1760.

After: William Hogarth

Print attrib. William Platt

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-4138

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http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2022/03/an-attempt-to-make-more-sense-of-my.html

Friday, 1 September 2023

Peter Scheemakers by Hoare of Bath

Peter Scheemakers (1691 - 1781).

by William Hoare of Bath (1707 - 92).

Image from the Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.

No source given.

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/collections

An invaluable source of images of 18th Century English Paintings and Sculpture.

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Etching.

With ink inscription along bottom in the hand of Horace Walpole "Mr Peter Scheemakers Statuary / Wm Hoare ft. aqua forti"

Height: 190 millimetres, Width: 157 millimetres.

Accompanied by a cutting from a newspaper "Mr Peter Scheemakers, the Statuary, is removed from Old Palace-Yard to Vine-street, Picadilly" with on the backing sheet in a contemporary hand the date 1741.

British Museum

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https://historyofbath.org/images/BathHistory/Vol%2001%20-%2004.%20Newby%20-%20The%20Hoares%20of%20Bath.pdf

In 1728 the partners Schemakers and Delvaux auctioned their stock, announcing that they were going to Rome 'to improve their studies' (Vertue, Note books, 3.36). Travelling with them was William Hoare, who later drew Scheemakers's profile portrait in formal dress; an etching exists in the British Museum, London.

William Hoare grew up in Suffolk and Berkshire before moving to London to join the studio of Italian painter Giuseppe Grisoni (1699 – 1769). Hoare accompanied his master when he returned to Italy in 1728. He spent ten years working in the studio of the history painter Francesco Imperiali (1679 – 1740) in Rome.

William Hoare arrived in Bath in 1738 and is thought to have lived in a house on the east side of Queen Square, diagonally opposite John Wood, who lived at No. 9 on the south side. By 1763 he had moved up to Edgar Buildings and had a studio and ‘picture room’ there until his death in 1792

https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/John%20Wood%2011%20%20The%20Portrait%20of%20John%20Wood%20that%20Never%20Was.pdf

Bath Chronicle - 6 November 1783 - Art: Bath Academy - meeting of 4 Nov at the Three Tuns Tavern, Stall St, Bath unanimously thanked John Palmer, esq., - Hoare, esq., George James, esq., & Mr Ch. Harris, statuary, London.

This note refers to William Hoare but is interesting from the point of view that Charles Harris Statuary (of the Strand, London) was involved in an Academy at Bath.

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Prince Hoare (1711 -69) the sculptor and brother of William Hoare was a pupil assistant of Peter Scheemakers, he was active in Bath from 1749, but married an heiress Mary Coulthurst with£6,000 and (I believe) much of the sculpture attributed to him was made by his assistant Plura.

For Hoare's bust and statue of Beau Nash see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/beau-nash-statue-in-pump-rooms-bath-by.html

For a brief overview of 18th Century Bath Sculptors see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/18th-to-mid-19th-century-sculpture-in.html

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Peter Scheemakers.

In an imaginary studio with his bust of William Harvey carved for Richard Meade, Inigo Jones and the bust of a Roman.

Francis Hayman (1708 - 76).

1739.

oil on canvas

56 x 43 cms

He is holding the engraving of Harvey by Jacobus Houbraken (1698 - 1780) after the original by Willem van Bemmel (1630 - 1708) for Birch's Heads of 1739.

Image courtesy Royal College of Surgeons.

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The Marble bust of Harvey by Scheemakers

Royal College of Physicians

Photographed by the author October 2016.

I am very grateful to all the staff at the Royal College for allowing myself and Peter Hone to visit the college and to making our visit such a delight.

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/bust-of-william-harvey-scheemakers.html

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William Harvey

by Jacobus Houbraken.

A drawing of the human arterial system in lower left

Lettered with name of sitter on oval, and in lower margin, "In the collection of Dr Mead / Bemmel pinx / J. Houbraken sculps. Amst. 1739 / Impensis J & P Knapton Londini. 1739".

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http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/busts-of-shakespeare-by-scheemakers-and.html

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/bust-of-william-harvey-scheemakers.html

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Peter Scheemakers.

1779.

Peter Scheemakers with the monument to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey.

by Andreas Bernardus de Quertenmont (1750 - 1835).

1776,

oil on canvas,

62.9 ,m x 48.9 cm ,

National Portrait Gallery.

NPG 2675

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Katherine Pelham, Countess of Lincoln, c.1760.

William Hoare.

Mezzotint.

Engraved by the Irishman James McArdell (1728 -65)

Arrived London c. 1747.

died at Henrietta St, Covent Garden.

https://www.libraryireland.com/irishartists/james-mcardell.php

The mezzotint included here because of (to me) its sheer beauty.

Wednesday, 30 August 2023

The Bust of Jerry Pierce by Prince Hoare

The Missing Plaster Bust of Jerry Pierce by Prince Hoare.

Formerly at Bath Mineral Water Hospital.

I have made enquiries - it has disappeared - probably stolen.

I suspect that the original of this bust (see below) was carved by Hoare's very able assistant Joseph Plura.

For a brief overview of Sculpture in Bath in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries see

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/18th-to-mid-19th-century-sculpture-in.html

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The images above are from The Paul Mellon Photographic Archive

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/search/Pierce

This an excellent resource for photographs of object where other photographs might not be avaliable.

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The Mural Monument to Jerry Pierce.

Prince Hoare.

St Swithin’s Church, Walcot. Bath (above).

1768.

Photographs taken by the Author.

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Jerry Pearce.

Marble Bust.

Prince Hoare.

Images courtesy The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate.

For more on Plura and Hoare see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-busts-of-gratiana-davenport-by.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/bust-of-ralph-allen-by-prince-hoare.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/beau-nash-bust-by-prince-hoare.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/bust-of-ralph-allen-by-prince-hoare_14.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/bust-of-ralph-allen-by-prince-hoare.html

Monday, 21 August 2023

A Bust of Handel - 1824 - Aide Memoire.

see -

The Terracotta bust.

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-marble-bust-of-handel-by-roubiliac.html

Rodd, Horatio, fl. 1810-1859.

Title

A catalogue of authentic portraits : painted in oil, on pannel and canvas, miniatures, marble busts, &c. : among them are many of our kings, nobility, literary characters, naval and military heroes, and others eminent in church and state : and several nearly allied to the existing noble families by the most eminent contemporary artists ... : also a few carvings in wood, carved frames &c. and a fine original bust of Handel, by Roubiliac : the whole of which are now offered for sale at the prices affixed / by H. Rodd ...

Published

London : Printed by J. Compton, Middle Street, Cloth Fair, 1824.

https://search.library.yale.edu/catalog/581231

Friday, 18 August 2023

The Nightingale Monument in Westminster Abbey.

The Nightingale Monument.

Westminster Abbey.

Commissioned in 1758 and erected 1761.

Joseph and Elizabeth Nightingale (d. 1752 and 1731).

A great deal has been written about this most dramatic of the Roubiliac monuments.

See - Roubiliac and the Eighteenth Century Monument By David Bindman and Malcolm Baker. pub. Yale 1995.

Until very recently it has only been possible to obtain recent photographs through the official Westminster Abbey channels. I was threatened with ejection on a previous visit - but thankfully common sense has prevailed and they have relaxed their rules and it is now possible to take photographs in the abbey.

I was hampered here - unable to get a very good photograph of the full monument and so I'm adding the official, poor quality website photograph. Why are they so mean spirited (forgive the pun)? Why do the powers that be do this? are they afraid of people making money out of them?

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The Roubiliac Terracotta Maquette.

Height 530 x Width 32 cms

Inscribed 1758 / Roubiliac in.

This model was rediscovered in 1870 in the Triforium at the Abbey It might be the Plann mentioned in a minute dated 13 Feb 1758.

Equally it could be another " design which was sold at the posthumous sale Roubiliac Sale, Friday 14 May 1762, Third day, Lot 71. and possibly again by a Mr Jackson at Christies Lot 88, 22 July 1807.

Other designs (drawings?) were sold in Nollekens sale of2/5 December 1823, Lot 252.

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Watercolour Drawing by Edward Burney c. 1800, in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The missing jaw bone of Death is clearly visible.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1068523/nightingale-monument-watercolour-edward-burney/

Situated in St Michael’s chapel, off the north transept of Westminster Abbey, is the monument commemorating Lady Elizabeth Nightingale. She was born in 1704, the eldest of three daughters of Washington Shirley, Earl Ferrers and Viscount Tamworth (d.1729) and his wife Mary. Her sisters were Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (d.1791 aged 83) of Chapel fame, and Mary, Viscountess Kilmorey who died in1784.

On 24 June 1725 Elizabeth married Joseph Gascoigne (1695-1752), son of the Revd. Joseph Gascoigne, Vicar of Enfield in Middlesex. He assumed the surname of Nightingale on becoming heir to his kinsman Sir Robert Nightingale. Of their three sons, Washington, Joseph and Robert, only the first survived his father but then only by two years. She died on 17 August 1731 following a miscarriage caused by the shock of a violent flash of lightning.

Their child, Elizabeth, survived and later married Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lis

The monument by Roubiliac was not erected until 1761.

“Here rest the ashes of JOSEPH GASCOIGNE NIGHTINGALE of Mamhead in the county of Devon Esqr., who died July the 20th 1752 aged 56. And of Lady ELIZABETH his wife, daughter and coheir of WASHINGTON Earl Ferrers; who died August the 17th 1734 aged 27. Their only son WASHINGTON GASCOIGNE NIGHTINGALE Esqr. deceas’d, in memory of their virtues, did by his last will order this monument to be erected”.

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The Nightingale Monument.

Mezzotint, 1806.

Philip Dawe.

Mezzotint. 62.5 x 38.3 cms.

1806.

Scratched within the image with the title, and "Pubd by R Pollard June 6 1806 / Roubiliac, Statuary Engraved by P Dawe"

Image courtesy British Museum.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1613700350

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I expect this image is copyrighted if anyone wants to use it be warned - frankly it is such a poor photograph that it is only useful to give the overall impression. The image from a Tuck postcard below is available foc and CCO

To anyone interested please feel free to use my photographs but please credit me and the blog.

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/

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https://www.tuckdbephemera.org/items/memorial-to-lady-elizabeth-nightingale

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZBWq2aOO8

Wednesday, 16 August 2023

The Roubiliac Ligonier Bust and its recently reunited socle.

The Roubiliac Marble Bust of Ligonier in the Royal Collection

and its recently reunited socle.

Some thoughts.

This post was prompted by my recent researches into the drawings of the busts in the Harris Museum and Art Gallery Preston and the subsequent reappraisal of my previous posts on the pair of Roubiliac busts Of Ligonier and George II in the Royal Collection in the light of the discovery of the original socle of the bust of George II.

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The Nollekens Harris/ Preston Drawing of the bust of Lord Ligonier by Roubiliac.

Image below from the ART UK website.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lord-ligonier-265788/search/collectionx:harris-museum-art-gallery-library-2080/page/27/view_as/grid

John First Earl Ligonier (1680 - 1770).

Lord Ligonier.

The socle with the circular plate on this bust is similar to other Roubiliac busts.

For the marble bust of Lord Ligonier in the Royal Collection see my post

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2017/10/busts-of-george-ii-and-john-first-earl.html

The socle here is similar to that used on the Roubiliac Marble Bust of Andrew Fountaine on the monument at Narford, Norfolk (below), and to the marble busts of Andrew Fountaine and Martin Folkes by Roubiliac at Wilton House. Related to the medallions by Dassier

Andrew Fountaine Monument, Narford, Norfolk

Martin Folkes - Marble Wilton House.

The Roubiliac bust of Ligonier also employs the drapery pattern seen in two other late busts by Roubiliac – the bust of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697–1759), on Coke’s monument in St Mary, Tittleshall, Norfolk, (see below).

A plaster version with the standard socle is in the marble Hall at Holkham Norfolk;

The so called Fordham marble bust of Shakespeare in The Folger Library Washington DC. which was perhaps Lot 74, sold on the fourth day of the Roubiliac Sale on Saturday 15th May 1762. Given that there are no marble versions of the terracotta so called Davenant bust of Shakespeare (at the Garrick Club) and the bust donated to the BM by Matthew Maty, extant or mentioned elsewhere it seems a very distinct possibility that this was the Fordham bust.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-folger-library-marble-bust-of.html

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The Bust of Lord Ligonier.

Roubiliac.

in the Royal Collection.

John, 1st Earl Ligonier, by Roubiliac

Provenance - by inheritance to Mrs Lloyd of Gloucester Place, London, by whom presented to George IV on 27 June 1817.

The socle has been replaced. see the image of the stairwell at Carlton House with the busts of Ligonier and George II on their original socles.

Malcolm Baker says Jonathan Marsden that the original socle for the bust of George II has reappeared.

Images here from

Royal Collection Website.

https://www.rct.uk/collection/35256/john-ligonier-1680-1770-1st-earl-ligonier

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The NPG terracotta of Ligonier by Roubiliac.

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03912/John-Ligonier-1st-Earl-Ligonier

18" tall including the socle.

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03912/John-Ligonier-1st-Earl-Ligonier

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the NPG say -

"NPG 2013 corresponds with the undated marble at Windsor incised L.F.Roubiliac sc. ad Vivum and must be the model. Mrs Esdaile places it possibly circa 1748 but more probably from the last years of the sculptor's life.

Roubiliac died 1762. Ligonier received the Bath in 1743 but sittings would have been difficult before the end of the war, 1748.

In 1926 W. T. Whitley discovered a contemporary reference to 'A Bust' of the sitter exhibited by Roubiliac at the Society of Artists 1761 (153) and an entry 3 February 1763 'To paid Mr Roubilliacs bill for £153 11s’has been found in the regimental account kept by Ligonier's agent Richard Cox. [2]

The payment, which must have been to the sculptor's estate, has been taken to refer to the Windsor marble, but unfortunately the supporting personal ledger where details might have been expected cannot be traced. [3]

Mrs Esdaile believed the marble was a royal commission; this is prima facie evidence to the contrary. Furthermore, according to Benjamin Justham, inventory clerk to George IV, the Roubiliac busts of Ligonier and George II were presented, 27 June 1817, by a Thomas Lloyd of 112 Gloucester Place, London. [4]

Four plasters and a mould of the bust were in the Roubiliac sale of 1762, lots 11 and 47 of the 1st day, lot 4 of the 3rd day and lots 9 and 17 of the 4th day. [5] These have since disappeared.

Condition: cracks at the base of the shoulders and in front, below the star of the Bath and in the fur above the centre line of the breastplate, have been repaired; an area at the edge of the collar on his left shoulder has been painted in; the tip of his left shoulder is damaged at the back; a few small areas of white visible in some of the valleys of the wig; 19th-century(?) rose-coloured plaster socle now faded.

Collections: bought 1924, from dealer Basil Dighton of 3 Savile Row, W1, and believed by him to be of Lord St Vincent. Mrs Esdaile, however, states that the bust had ‘passed from a dealer in Norwich to the vendor and been called Lord Howe'.

2. Letter, The Times, 28 December 1926, unpublished, NPG archives.

3. '1st Foot Guards Viscount Ligonier', f.137, archives of Messrs Lloyds Bank (Cox & King’s branch). Kindly verified by Mr M.A. Clancy, cp Whitworth, p.380 and note 2.

4. G. de Bellaigue, letter, 30 March 1972, NPG archives.

5. Esdaile, pp.219-27. [6]

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A bust of Lord Ligonier was exhibited by Roubiliac at the Society of Artists in 1761.

No material was specified suggesting that this bust of Ligonier was most likely to be a terracotta, but it was possibly a plaster.

The Ligonier busts at the Roubiliac posthumous sale.

Three plaster busts were sold at the posthumous Roubiliac Sale at his house in St Martin's Lane on May 12 1762 and the following three days.For a transcript of the complete catalogue see below.

A plaster bust was sold on the first day - lot 11.

The mould was sold on the first day Lot 47.

Third day - Lot 4, A plaster bust of Ligonier.

Two plaster busts were sold on the fourth day - lots 9 and 17.

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The Roubiliac Busts of Ligonier and George II at Carlton House.

Aquatint of the staircase well at Carlton House showing the two busts with their original socles

From Pyne's Royal Residences, 1819.

Engraver: Thomas Sutherland after Charles Wild.

Published by: W. H. Pyne, 36 Upper Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square.

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This section is of tangential relevance to the busts in the drawings but here is a convenient place to put these notes and images

A few notes on the original socles for the marble busts of Ligonier and George II.

The socles have been replaced sometime in the 1830's with turned socles with collars inscribed with the names of the subjects, along with several other socles on earlier busts in the Royal Collection such as the Alexander Pope bust by or after Roubiliac.

Jonathan Marsden has recently recorded that the original socle for the bust of George II has reappeared.

I am very grateful to Sally Goodsir Curator of Decorative Arts of the Royal Collection for informing me of the photograph below which shows the original socle now returned to the Roubiliac bust of George II.

For the Royal Collection photograph of the Roubiliac bust of George II reunited with its original socle which can be found on the Google Arts and Culture website -

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/george-ii/UwHNTLDsfdTfkg?hl=en-GB&avm=2

The Roubiliac Bust of George II recently reunited with his original socle.

Royal Collection.

Roubiliac appears to have adapted the form of socle used in the 17th century on several busts by unidentified sculptors but possibly those by Peter Besnier. A pair of plaster busts from Easton Neston of Lord William and Lady Fermor, the bronze bust of Catherine Murray, Countess of Dysart at Ham House and the bronze bust of Venetia Lady Digby (private Collection) all have socles with volutes on either side.

Malcolm Baker, in an essay in the Burlington Magazine makes the case for the pair of busts being created especially for niches in the Gallery at Ligonier's house in 12 North Audley Street, Grosvenor Square (designed c 1728 / 1730 and attributed to Edward Lovett Pierce) with the socles made to echo the horizontal volutes on either side of the centre tablet of the Kentian chimneypiece.

I am not convinced I find this difficult to reconcile with the visual evidence. The niches at the ends of the gallery appear too tall and were probably intended to contain statues and the cupboards? either side of the chimneypiece appear to be too small in width.