Post in preparation - Continuing with the loose theme of Strawberry Hill.
A Beautiful Mid 18th Century Terracotta Bust with Milan dealer Walter Padovani.
Terracotta; height 51.5 cm.
They say circa 1749 .
https://www.walterpadovani.com/portfolio-item/prince-hoareportrait-of-sir-horace-mann/
The provenance is given as Private Collection! Discovered by Dr Silvia Davoli, Head Curator at Strawberry Hill.
Suggested as a Portrait of Sir Horace Mann (1706 - 1786).
by Prince Hoare (b. Eye? Cambridge, 1711 - Bath, 1769).
I remain to be convinced that is either a portrait of Horace Mann or by Prince Hoare!
I don't believe from the evidence available that Prince Hoare was capable of making such a fine bust.
The portraits below of Horace Mann and his brother Galfridus (both illustrated below) depict men with fairly pronounced Roman noses. the bust illustrated here has a fairly obvious cleft chin not visible in the Astley portrait.
https://www.walterpadovani.com/portfolio-item/prince-hoareportrait-of-sir-horace-mann/
It is very dangerous to make comparisons but I will try and make the case for a mis attribution and maybe some suggestions for the sitter and sculptor.
Cerainly the cleft chin is missing on the portrait of Horace Mann by Astly
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For Mann and Horace Walpole see -
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To me this bust poses a few questions!
If not Horace Mann - who??
If not sculpted by Prince Hoare - by whom??
Horace Mann was a great letter writer - in particular he corresponded with Horace Walpole, if he had sat for a portrait bust it is unlikely that he would not have mentioned it. see -
https://libsvcs-1.its.yale.edu/hwcorrespondence/browse.asp?type=Letters&ns=1751
Was it made in Italy as suggested by the current owners?
Was the sculptor English or perhaps French or Italian?
There are no other terracotta busts by Prince Hoare to compare it with!
If it is possible to analyse it would be useful to know where the clay was obtained from.
The style of the socle/support with a very thick prop is unlike that of most English busts of the period.
Is it hollow? I suspect that it is solid unless the base is open. - it would need somewhere for the air to escape during firing.
It is dangerous again to make generalisations but the terracotta busts made by Netherland sculptors tended to be solid and frequently cracked in the firing -
Michael Rysbrack's terracotta busts were filled after firing and then painted - those of French sculptors such as Roubiliac were hollow and of a fairly even thin thickness - which was far less likely to crack in the firing and therefor didn't need painting.
I cannot claim any expertise on French or Italian sculptors.
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I have already written at some length about Prince Hoare and his more talented assistant Joseph Plura- who probably did most of the work. see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-busts-of-gratiana-davenport-by.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/beau-nash-statue-in-pump-rooms-bath-by.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
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Much of the info on the lives and careers of the Hoare Brothers below is culled from
Evelyn Newby - The Hoares of Bath -History of Bath Research Group.
Prince Hoare - Vertue states that he was 'educated' under Peter Scheemakers.
He went to Italy in about 1742.
By January 1749 he had made an admirable copy of a relief of Antinous belonging to Cardinal Albani who thought him very clever and anxious to succeed.
From Florence in August 1749 he thanked Albani for his introduction to Horace Mann .....
He copied a bust of Cicero in the Uffizi and was aking a copy of Ganymede for Lewis Monson Watson (Walpole Cores. 20. 86 26 Aug. 1749
Vertue next mentions Prince as the latter returns from Rome 'where he had been to make his studyes about 7 or 8 years', and records his return in January of 1750 (Vertue 3. 152).
But so far the only definite record of him in Italy is in a letter from yet another British Resident in Florence, Sir Horace Mann. In this letter, dated 26 August 1749, Mann is writing to Horace Walpole and damns Prince Hoare with faint praise:
"Hoare the sculptor I have had in my house is to accompany him [Mann's secretary, returning to England] ... I rather wish he may fall into good business in England. He is very clever in copying but I have seen nothing original of his doing.
Had he application equal to his skill, I believe he could make a figure at least in England, where sculpture is not at any great pitch".
A bust of Plautilla signed and dated P. HOARE Ft. FLOR:AE MDCCIL and copied from an antique bust in the Uffizi is currently in the Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath UK. It illustrates that he was a proficient copyist but to me appears to be a bit of a pot boiler
Vertue described him as 'a tall handsome and agreeable person somewhat skilled in music'.
The lack of application hinted at in Mann's letter to Walpole is corroborated in passages from letters written by William Pitt to Richard Grenville. Prince had been commissioned to design andcarve a monument to the memory of Captain Thomas Grenville, brother to Richard, who had been killed in action at sea in 1747. The first letter, dated 26 November 1752 from Bath, mentions that work is proceeding apace on the clay model for the statue, the figure promising "to be a very good one'. The second letter, also from Bath. (this is probably the same address).
Evelyn Newby suggests that he was more indolent than his brother (the very successful William Hoare) by nature, and without the financial need to work too seriously to establish himself, was already living in some style in the south wing of Ralph Allen's town house, now 2 North Parade Passage, moving to Abbey Green in 1766".
Prince Hoare's name does not appear in the Bath Mineral Waters Hospital Minutes until May 1758, when he was elected one of the Governors.
The previous year, his bust of Ralph Allen had been presented by Dr. Warburton, Allen's nephew-in-law, the gift being recorded in the Minutes for 27 April 1757.
Soon after returning from Italy and settling in Bath, Prince had married well. The Gentleman's Magazine in the list of marriages for 1751 included 'Mr Prince Hoar [sic] a celebrated statuary at Bath - to Miss Coulthurst of Melksham, Wilts, £6,000' .
The Bath Journal further endorses his happy choice, 'the beginning of last week was married Mr. Hoare an eminent statuary, to Miss Coulthurst of Melksham an agreeable young lady with a handsome fortune', and Prince describes himself as 'gentleman' in the marriage register for 26 May 1751.
Bath Chronicle - 1st November 1770 - Notices: Mauge &
Lancashire, successors to Mr Prince Hoare, statuary (& his principal
workmen for many yrs), now trading at same yard in monuments, chimney pieces,
works in marble, wood & stone.
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Joseph Plura - The Assistant to Prince Hoare.
Giuseppe Plura probably trained in Turin at the Carlo
Emanuelle III Sculpture Academy and may have completed his training in Paris.
He emigrated to England and by 1749 had settled in Bath where he was known as Joseph. He appears to have begun his career there as an assistant of Prince Hoare and is said to have been responsible for carving the statue of Beau Nash in the Pump Room in 1752.
In 1748 however he had a disagreement with the contractor who had employed him to teach the prince, reputed because he was not getting paid and he subsequently left Spain.
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Horatio Mann - Diplomat; 1732, travelled to Naples for his health; by 1737, he was assistant to Charles Fane, British resident in Florence whose duties he took over in 1740; remained British representative in Florence for the rest of his life; awarded a baronetcy in 1755.
British visitors to Florence recorded his
kindness and generous hospitality; he is remembered particularly for extensive
correspondence with Horace Walpole, a distant relation.
https://www.walterpadovani.com/
https://www.walterpadovani.com/portfolio-item/prince-hoareportrait-of-sir-horace-mann/
https://www.walterpadovani.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/scheda_WP_Hoare_ENG.pdf
Red chalk
British Museum
Label on frame: "Galfridus Mann 1750 (John
Astley)".
In a contemporary gilt Italian frame as displayed at
Strawberry Hill.
Date from Catalog of the classic contents of Strawberry Hill
collected by Horace Walpole: 1752.
Provenance
Strawberry Hill sale, 18 May 1842, twenty-first day's sale,
lot 42, together with its pair (6 gns to J.P. Bevan). Lord Hastings; Sotheby's,
1 February 1950, lot 71 (£280 to Agnew) with Thomas, Agnew & Sons.
Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery.
Queen Street, Exeter, Devon.
The engraving annotated by Edward Hawkins, keeper (1826-60) of the Department of Antiquities, British
Museum, which Department he had joined in 1825, after an earlier career as a
banker. The British Museum purchased his collection of English medals from him
on his retirement in 1860
inscribed on waisted socle: PLAVTILLA
Provenance - Anonymous sale, Christie's, 3 July 1985, Lot 252.
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Could it be an early bust by Joseph Nollekens and not by Prince Hoare?
There are three possible candidates for the terracotta bust dating from Nollekens stay in Italy of 1761 until 1770.
Nollekens’ master was Peter Scheemakers who he was assistant to for four years and worked as a journey man for a further three years before going to Rome.
Prince Hoare was also an assistant of Scheemakers, he left Rome in 1749, after a sojourn of at least seven years.
1. 1764. Prince Edward Augustus - Marble at Windsor Castle. I have dismissed this - Edward does not have the cleft chin.
2. Noted 9 July 1764. John Richards of North House, Horndean. Hants (Ingamells) Martin Journals - a bust by Nollekens that he thought very like. disappeared
3. 1764. Sir John Wodehouse Bt (Ingamells) He was also painted by Pompeo Batoni in 1764 - disappeared
The Bust of Ralph Allen presented to the Guild Hall Bath on 29 October 1822
By Prince Hoare (the artist and playwright 1755 - 1834) (nephew of the4 Sculptor)
BC/6/9/1/1/23 | Archives and Local Studies Catalogue
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The Marble Bust of Ralph Allen.
Recently Acquired by the Holburne Museum, Bath.
I posted some time ago on the busts and sculptures by Prince Hoare see - etc.
To my eye there is a similarity in the treatment of the flesh in the portrait busts except for that of Jerry Pearce.
I suspect that it was perhaps carved in Hoares workshop by his long term assistant Joseph Plura or another less skilled carver.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/18th-to-mid-19th-century-sculpture-in.html
see also
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/bust-of-ralph-allen-by-prince-hoare.html
Sir John Henderson, 5th Baronet of Fordell.
Christopher Hewetson.
1770's.
