The Group of Seven Terracotta Busts by Michael Rysbrack,
Accidently Destroyed when a Shelf Collapsed at Windsor Castle in 1906 and the Four surviving Busts still in the Royal Collection.
Photographs taken by Livingstone in 1874 for a royal inventory.
The busts had been moved to Windsor Castle in 1825 when Queen Caroline’s library at St James’s Palace was demolished.
The busts had been moved to Windsor Castle in 1825 when Queen Caroline’s library at St James’s Palace was demolished.
Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack
Queen Phillipa (?).
Destroyed by accident 1906.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack.
Henry Frederick Stuart Prince of Wales (1594 - 1612).
Destroyed by accident 1906.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Terracotta Bust by Michael Rysbrack
Henry VII (1457 - 1509).
Destroyed by accident 1906.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack
Henry V (1386 - 1422).
Destroyed by accident 1906.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack
Elizabeth of York (1466 -1503), consort of Henry VII.
65.3 x 35.0 x 23.0 cm
Damaged by accident 1906 but not destroyed - It remains in the Royal Collection.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Alfred the Great (849 - 899).
Destroyed by accident 1906.
This bust had been wrongly identified as Edward III
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack.
Queen Phillipa of Hainault (1314 - 1369). Wife of Edward III.
Destroyed by accident 1906.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
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Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack
Edward III. (1312 - 1377).
Destroyed by accident 1906.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
I am very grateful to Agata Rutkowska of the Royal Collections for providing me with these images.
Garter Ante Room, Windsor Castle, c. 1890. with the bust of Phillipa of Hainault by Rysbrack.
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
Terracotta Bust by Michael Rysbrack
Edward the Black Prince.
64.5 x 51.0 x 25.0 cm
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
Edward is thought to have taken this name after the black colour of his armour and although he died before he could succeed his father to the throne he secured his son's ascension, who later became Richard II.
Terracotta Bust by Michael Rysbrack
Edward VI (1537 -53).
son of Henry VIII and Queen Jane Seymour
Signed and dated 'Mich Rysbrack 1738'
This is the only bust extant which is signed and dated.
56.5 x 47.0 x 33.0 cm (whole object).
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
Terracotta bust by Michael Rysbrack.
Elizabeth I. (1533 - 1603).
65.5 x 45.5 x 29.0 cm
Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
In 1736, Queen Caroline, King George II’s consort, commissioned John Michael Rysbrack, a Flemish sculptor working in England, to create a series of terracotta busts of English sovereigns, of ‘all Kings of England from William the Conqueror’. In the early 18th century, a new fashion for representations and images of prominent historic figures or 'British Worthies' arose in England. With the arrival of a new protestant dynasty in 1714 there was a need to create a strong national identity. As well as a patron of the Arts, Queen Caroline was an influential political and intellectual figure of her time and with this commission she sought to establish direct links between the new Hanoverian protestant dynasty and England’s royal ancestry and historic past.
George Vertue recorded a visit by Queen Caroline on 10 June 1735 to Rysbrack’s studio, where she was able to see ‘the Busts of Marble of Kings & Queens done lately by him to adorn some palace’. An article in the Gentleman’s Magazine a few weeks later noted that ‘Her Majesty has ordered Mr Risbrack to make the Bustos in Marble of all the Kings of England from William the Conqueror, in order to be placed in her New Building in the Gardens at Richmond’. Important as these early sources are, neither is completely accurate, for the series does not seem to have reached the marble stage, and there is no other contemporary reference to a series of kings at Richmond. These terracottas were in fact modelled for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace.
Whilst it may have been intended that the busts should then be carved in marble, the commission was annulled by the Queen’s death in November 1737. On 23 January 1738 Isaac Ware as Secretary of the Board of Works wrote to Rysbrack: ‘I am ordered … to acquaint You that [the Commissioners of Works] will Allow you the Price you have Charged them for the Busto’s in the Queens Library, but expect you will send them to the Office (there to be Lodged) the Models of the faces you made for Working after’. It seems that the terracottas themselves were displayed in the Library. The others in the series represented Alfred; Edward III; Philippa of Hainault; Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, Henry V; Catherine of Valois; Henry VII; Elizabeth of York; Elizabeth I, and Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales. Of the eleven terracotta sculptures that Rysbrack made only three survive: one of Edward the Black Prince (RCIN37067), another of Queen Elizabeth I (RCIN 45101) and this one of Edward VI. The other busts were destroyed in 1906 when the shelf on which they stood at the Orangery in Windsor Castle collapsed. The busts had been moved to Windsor Castle in 1825 when Queen Caroline’s library at St James’s was demolished.
Text adapted from The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014
George Vertue recorded a visit by Queen Caroline on 10 June 1735 to Rysbrack’s studio, where she was able to see ‘the Busts of Marble of Kings & Queens done lately by him to adorn some palace’. An article in the Gentleman’s Magazine a few weeks later noted that ‘Her Majesty has ordered Mr Risbrack to make the Bustos in Marble of all the Kings of England from William the Conqueror, in order to be placed in her New Building in the Gardens at Richmond’. Important as these early sources are, neither is completely accurate, for the series does not seem to have reached the marble stage, and there is no other contemporary reference to a series of kings at Richmond. These terracottas were in fact modelled for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace.
Whilst it may have been intended that the busts should then be carved in marble, the commission was annulled by the Queen’s death in November 1737. On 23 January 1738 Isaac Ware as Secretary of the Board of Works wrote to Rysbrack: ‘I am ordered … to acquaint You that [the Commissioners of Works] will Allow you the Price you have Charged them for the Busto’s in the Queens Library, but expect you will send them to the Office (there to be Lodged) the Models of the faces you made for Working after’. It seems that the terracottas themselves were displayed in the Library. The others in the series represented Alfred; Edward III; Philippa of Hainault; Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, Henry V; Catherine of Valois; Henry VII; Elizabeth of York; Elizabeth I, and Henry Stuart, Prince of Wales. Of the eleven terracotta sculptures that Rysbrack made only three survive: one of Edward the Black Prince (RCIN37067), another of Queen Elizabeth I (RCIN 45101) and this one of Edward VI. The other busts were destroyed in 1906 when the shelf on which they stood at the Orangery in Windsor Castle collapsed. The busts had been moved to Windsor Castle in 1825 when Queen Caroline’s library at St James’s was demolished.
Text adapted from The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014
