The British Museum and Garrick Club Terracotta Busts of Shakespeare by Roubiliac (part 5). The British Museum Bust.

 The British Museum Terracotta Bust of William Shakespeare (1554 - 1616).

by Louis Francois Roubiliac (1702 - 62).

Purchased from the Roubiliac Sale in May 1762 by Dr Matthew Matey.

All the above photographs lifted from the British Museum Website.

Bust of William Shakespeare

Louis Francois Roubiliac

Terracotta.

578 mm tall.

© Trustees of the British Museum.

Provenance: Bought by Dr Matthew Matey at the Posthumous Roubiliac Sale held at the Studio in St Martin's Lane by Langfords of the Piazza Covent Garden.

 The only copy of the Roubiliac Sale Catalogue so far discovered is in the Finberg Collection at the British Museum. Unfortunately there is no annotation.

 This bust is either lot 73 or lot 83 on the second day 13 May 1762, or lot 86 on the Third day 14 May 1762.

For more on this bust and the other busts purchased by Dr Matthew Maty at the Roubiliac sale and now in the British Museum see: Portrait Sculpture, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection. c 1675 -1975, Aileen Dawson, pub. British Museum Press, 1999.

See my previous post for more on the Garrick Club Terracotta.