Sunday, 29 April 2018

Christopher Wren but by John Cheere, Codrington Library


The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere

All Souls College, Oxford University.

Part 11, Sir Christopher Wren.

For a fairly in depth look at the portraits and sculptures of Sir Christopher Wren see my post -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/soane-museum-8-plaster-bust-of.html





Sir Christopher Wren
Godfrey Kneller.

A portrait of Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), bewigged, seated in a red velvet side chair, left hand to his waist. He is dressed in a black velvet coat with gold buttons and breeches with a white neck scarf.
Wren's achievement is alluded to by the pair of dividers which he holds, the copy of 'Euclid' and the plan of the West End of the Cathedral.


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Sir Christopher Wren
Engraving
After Godfrey Kneller
1713





Christopher Wren son of Sir Christopher



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All photographs above taken by the author with a telephoto lense, under very difficult conditions.
The light was very low, and all the busts are about 20 ft above the floor on top of the bookcases.







Charles Talbot of Hensol bust John Cheere Codrington Library



The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere

All Souls College, Oxford University.

Part 10. Charles Talbot, Ist. Baron Talbot of Hensol, (Glamorgan), (1685 - 1737).

Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (1733 - 37).


He was christened at Chippenham , 21 Dec. 1685 , eldest son of William Talbot (afterwards bishop of Durham ) and his wife Catharine , daughter of Richard King , alderman of the City of London . He was educated at Eton and Oriel College , Oxford ( B.A. 1704 , Fellow of All Souls 1704 , D.C.L. 1735 ; he was also awarded, in 1714 , the Lambeth LL.B. ). 

He intended to take holy orders but on the advice of lord Cooper chose the career of the law, becoming a barrister ( Inner Temple ) on 28 June 1707 . He was appointed Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales , 31 May 1717 . 

He was Member of Parliament for Tregony , Cornwall , 1719-20 , and for Durham , 1722-34 . 

He became Solicitor-General , 23 April 1726 and, on 29 Nov. 1733 , was made lord chancellor .



As will be seen his career (which is sketched fairly fully in D.N.B. ) had been hitherto associated mainly with England . It was when he married a Welsh heiress that his connection with Wales began. This was in the summer of 1708 , his wife being Cecil , daughter of Charles Mathew , Castell Menich , Glamorgan , granddaughter and heiress of judge David Jenkins of Hensol (q.v.) . Talbot built at Hensol a Tudor-style castle to which his son added afterwards. He was raised to the peerage on 5 Dec. 1733 . He d. 14 Feb. 1736/7 .

This biog from - http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-TALB-CHA-1685.html






Charles Talbot
After John Vanderbank
Oil on canvas.
1407 x 1245 mm.
National Portrait Gallery


© National Portrait Gallery, London


They say -


NPG 42 is an indifferent copy of Vanderbank's portrait of the sitter as chancellor, which must have been completed by 1734 when engraved. At Lincoln's Inn there is an oil sketch(?) of the head and shoulders, within an oval, inscribed on the back: Painting for sending to Holland to be engraved by Houbraken. A whole length is in the collection of Lord Dynevor. It was presumably painted for the sitter whose eldest son, William Earl Talbot, was created, 1780, Baron Dinevor. [1] Another is (1970) in the collection of the Earl of Roden, RN. A three-quarter length was lent to the NPE 1867 (253) by Miss Talbot, and another was in the Earl of Shrewsbury's collection, Ingestre (1955), the latter probably by descent from the sitter's younger son John, whose second marriage to the heiress of John Viscount Chetwynd brought the Ingestre estate into the family. [2] Another good example was at Christie's, 30 April 1954, lot 47, as 'Portrait of a Chancellor'; others, probably copies, are at All Souls College, Oxford (there by c.1804 [3]), and at the Inner Temple.

Condition:restored, cleaned three times and varnished twice between 1858 and 1902.

Collections:given 1858 by the Hon. Mrs John Chetwynd Talbot [4] as by Richardson; previous history unknown.

Engraved:first engraved, in reverse, by Houbraken, lettered . . . J. Houbraken sculps. Amst. 1739 / In the Possession of the Right Hon: William Lord Talbot . . . and published by J. and P. Knapton for Birch's Heads the following year.

Literature:M.I. Webb, 'Henry Cheere, Sculptor and Businessman and John Cheere—I', Burlington Magazine, C, 1958.


Vanderbank's is the only ad vivum likeness and is therefore probably the source of the bust in the Codrington library at All Souls, one of the twenty-four commissioned from John Cheere c.1749known to have been taken from portraits.


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Charles Talbot (1685–1737), 1st Lord Talbot


Charles Talbot as Lord Chancellor
John Vanderbank

oil on canvas 
140 x 100 


Ingestre Hall Residential Arts Centre

Art UK see -

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/charles-talbot-16851737-1st-lord-talbot-20852/view_as/grid/search/people_auto:charles-talbot/page/1


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Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, by and published by Gerhard Bockman, after  John Vanderbank, circa 1737 - NPG D40537 - © National Portrait Gallery, London




Charles Talbot as Lord Chancellor
After Vanderbank
1739.
Mezzotint
360 x 253 mm.


© National Portrait Gallery, London


Charles Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot of Hensol, by Jacobus Houbraken, published by  John & Paul Knapton, after  John Vanderbank, 1739 - NPG D40540 - © National Portrait Gallery, London


Charles Talbot

John and Paul Knapton 
after John Vanderbank
1739
374 x 235 mm plate size.


© National Portrait Gallery, London.








































Sir William Trumbull Bust by John Cheere




The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere

All Souls College, Oxford University.

Part 9. Sir William Trumbull (1639 - 1716).

For a useful overview and biog see -

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



Sir William Trumbull, by George Vertue, after  Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt, 1724 - NPG D6987 - © National Portrait Gallery, London


Sir William Trumbull 
Engraving after Godfrey Kneller
George Vertue
279 x 200 mm.
1724.
































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Sir Robert Weston, bust by John Cheere, Codrington Library




The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere

All Souls College, Oxford University.

Part 7. Sir Robert Weston (d. 1573).

Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

Sir Robert Weston, Lord chancellor of Ireland, was the 7th son of John Weston of Lichfield, Staffs. He attended All Souls, Oxford, studied Civil Law, and attained the degree of BCL on 17 February 1538 and DCL on the 20 July 1556. MP for Exeter Mar 1553, the city of Lichfield 1558, 1559.

He held the office of Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, Lord High Chancellor [Ireland], 1567—1573, and Dean of Wells between 1570 and 1573.































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Henry Coventry bust by John Cheere




The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere

All Souls College, Oxford University.

Part 6. Henry Coventry 



















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Daniel Dunn John Cheere bust Codrington Library



The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere

All Souls College, Oxford University.

Part 5. 

Sir Daniel Dunn / Donne (d. 1617).

First Burgess of the University of Oxford.
Member of Parliament for the University 1604 - 17.

So far I have been unable to locate any portrait.










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Friday, 27 April 2018

Bust of George Clarke, Codrington Library, John Cheere



The Codrington Library Plaster Busts by John Cheere. 

All Souls College, Oxford University .

Part 4.  Dr George Clarke (1661 - 1736).

Fellow of All Souls College. M.P. for the University of Oxford, Architect.

George Clarke (1661-1736), Fellow of All Souls from 1680 until his death, Tory politician - MP for Oxford in 1685, Winchelsea in 1702, and East Looe in 1705, 

Clarke returned to the House of Commons as MP for Oxford University at a by-election on 4 December 1717 following the death of William Whitelock.[3] He was re elected in 1722, 1727, and 1734, by which point he had lost his left eye and was losing sight in the other.

An architect and collector, he held various offices under the Tories, including secretary at war to William III, before being appointed to the commission of the Admiralty in 1710.  

He was also secretary to George, Prince of Denmark.  At the death of Queen Anne, however, he lost office.  

Nonetheless, Clarke remained MP for Oxford University and he was able to indulge his architectural interests, playing a part in most of the University building projects of his time. 


He  became the University’s leading authority on aesthetic matters, designed Oxford Almanacks, and was involved in all major building projects. 

He designed the Warden’s Lodgings at All Souls and completed Henry Aldrich’s designs for the Library at Christ Church; he worked with Hawksmoor and Thornhill at Queen’s College; and collaborated with Hawksmoor on the Codrington Library at All Souls.  

He collected not just books, but also drawings and prints – all of which were left to Worcester on his death in 1736.



He inherited books and papers from his father Sir William Clarke (Secretary at War to the Commonwealth and Charles II), collected books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, and paintings, and acquired most of Inigo Jones’s library. 

Disgusted by quarrels at All Souls, he left the bulk of his estate to the newly founded Worcester College, whose buildings he designed.




Curiously I could not locate any engraved portraits of Dr George Clarke - very surprising given his collecting habits and his interest in the visual arts. 

This suggests that John Cheere or his workmen would probably have visited All Souls or Worcester College, Oxford to inspect the portraits in order to create his bust of Clarke.
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The Godfrey Kneller (1646 - 1723), type portraits.







Inscribed on two old labels, verso: This belongs to Lord Hyde, and: In Mary Shaw's legacy / to Lord Cornbury.

oil on canvas.

75.5 by 62.5 cm.; 29 3/4 by 24 3/4 in.

Sotheby's 9 December 2010, lot 252.

Lady T. Lewis, Lives of the Friends and Contemporaries of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, London 1852, Vol. III, no. 114, pp. 257, 429 and 430;
R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in Oxford, 1925, no. 114, Vol. II, pp. 189-190, and Vol. III, pp. 261-162;

R. Gibson, Catalogue of Portraits in the Collection of the Earl of Clarendon, Wallop 1977, no. 50, pp. 46-47


The sitter was the the son of Sir William Clarke, Secretary of War for the King during the Civil War. A Fellow of All Souls, and M.P. for Oxford University in 1685 (and later from 1717 to 1736), Clarke was himself Secretary of War from 1692 to 1704, Secretary to Prince George of Denmark when Lord High Admiral, and Lord of the Admiralty from 1712 to 1714. A prominent figure at court from a noted Royalist family, Clarke appears to have been a close friend of Henry Hyde, Lord Cornbury, later  2nd Earl of Clarendon, who inherited this painting from his father's secretary. It relates to two portraits at Worcester College, Oxford,(below) one of which is inscribed with the sitter's name.

Information above from Sotheby's see -


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George Clarke.

after Kneller.

Oil on Canvas.

74.2 x 64.2 cms.

Worcester College, Oxford

Image courtesy Art UK





Portrait miniature of George Clarke (1661–1736).

Worcester College, Oxford.

This miniature, after the oil portrait (school of Sir Godfrey Kneller) in Worcester College, has a gilt frame with Clarke’s monogram on the reverse. 

It was bequeathed by Clarke to John Michel, 1736.

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George Clarke

George Clarke.

Circle of Godfrey Kneller.

Oil on Canvas.

73.6 x 60.9 cms

Photo Courtesy Worcester College,University of Oxford

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Dr George ClarkeAnon. 

Circle of Godfrey Kneller.

74.3 x 61.4cms All Souls College.

Bequeathed to All Souls by Dr Clarke in 1736.

Image courtesy Art UK


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Dr George Clarke

Circle of Godfrey Kneller.


Oil on Canvas124.8 x 100.7 cms

Worcester College, Oxford.


Image Art UK

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/george-clarke-16611736-benefactor-of-worcester-college-mp-for-the-university-of-oxford-fellow-of-all-souls-college-16801736-224127

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Prince George of Denmark husband of Queen Ann and Dr George Clarke.

Godfrey Kneller
.
Oil on Canvas.

144.7 x 164.6 cms.

Bequeathed by the sitter Dr George Clarke.

All Souls College, University of Oxford.

Image courtesy Art UK



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For an earlier portrait see -





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For the Print Collection of George Clarke at Worcester College, Oxford.




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