Scheemakers Monument to Shakespeare of 1740,
Westminster Abbey;
its Genesis and it Variants.
I have already written at some length about the rather indifferent Italian sculptor Guelphi and his very influential statue on the monument to James Craggs in Westminster Abbey, see -
On this page I attempt to illustrate how the pose of the Cragg statue by Guelphi influenced the pose of Scheemaker's Shakespeare, which in turn influenced other mid 18th century sculptures and paintings, particularly the portraits by Thomas Hudson.
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The Monument to James Craggs the Younger (1686 - 1721).
Westminster Abbey.
Preparatory Sketch for the Monument to Secretary James Craggs.
in Westminster Abbey.
Design by James Gibbs.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Low resolution photograph of the Cragg Monument.
Photography is not currently allowed in Westminster Abbey (entry £18).
In 1718 James Craggs had reached the peak of his political career when he succeeded Joseph Addison as Secretary of State.
The erection of this monument to James Craggs the Younger, who had died suddenly of smallpox on 16 February 1721, was supervised by Alexander Pope, who wrote his epitaph. His father died a month later leaving a great fortune to the three Cragg sisters, Mary, Elizabeth and Anne. Shortly before he died father and son were involved in the scandal of the South Sea Bubble.
His father was - 'the principal agent for the Administration in the whole transaction of the South Sea project and bore the chief blame for all the iniquity of it, as an accomplice with the leading director, and having made an immense gain by the stock, and being a man generally detested he was soon marked out for a sacrifice to the indignation of the people. His great spirit not brooking this, and knowing the severity, as he called it, of a House of Commons examination, and having just lost his son by the smallpox, he died soon afterwards, not without very strong suspicions of having used violence to himself'
HMC 14th Rep. IX, 459, 511; Dodington
Diary, 271; CJ, xix. 424-51.
The sisters were responsible for the erection of the monument -
Popes epitaph -
'Fiend of truth. Of soul sincere, In action faithful and in honour clear. Who broke no promise. Servd no private end.
Terracotta model for the statue on monument to James Craggs by Guelphi.
Soane Museum.
The pose of this statue was very influential on future monuments - the Westminster Abbey monument to Shakespeare by Scheemakers of 1740 being the prime example, on the monument of 1746 to William and Elizabeth Powlett at St George's Church West Grinstead by Rysbrack, the statue of George Cooke of about 1749 formerly in the gardens of Belhamonds House, Middlesex and now in the Ashmolean, the 1757 monument to Charles Polhill, St Bartholemew, Otford, Kent by Henry Cheere, the 1761 to Cholmley Turner, at St Cuthberts, Kirkleatham, Cleveland also by Henry Cheere.
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Engraving by Pierre Daret.
Autumn by Sarazin 1642.
"Autumn" for the Château de Wideville, about 1635 Jacques Sarazin, French 1588─1660.
I believe this engraving is the most likely source for Guelphi's statue of Craggs.
Image Cooper Hewitt Museum.
Sketch for the Sarazin Statue.
Study for the Sculpture "Autumn" for the Château de Wideville, about 1635 Jacques Sarazin, French 1588─1660.
Image Cooper Hewitt Museum.
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Ancient statue of the Resting Satyr, Prado Madrid.
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William Kent.
c.1725.
by William Aikman (1682 - 1731).
1971 x 1039 mm.
Aikman's portrait
was painted for Lord Castlemaine for the overmantel in the Great Hall of
Wanstead in Essex, his magnificent Palladian house which is long since
demolished.
The hall ceiling, representing the Times of Day, was decorated by
Kent and he is shown holding his palette and brushes.
National Portrait Gallery
Preparatory Sketch by Aikman for the Portrait of William Kent
Oil on Canvas
494 x 389 mm
Yale Centre for British Art
They say the subject is the poet James Thomson but comparison with the portrait above and other portraits of Thomson (see below) would suggest that the subject is Kent and not Thomson.
Finished portrait of Thomson by Aikman
Oil 561 x 439 mm.
National Galleries of Scotland
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Another portrait (below) by Aikman using the Craggs pose.
Sir Thomas Saunders Sebright (1692–1736), 4th Bt (or 'Mr Crawley').
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Skeleton of a Boy About Nine Years Old,"
from Osteographia, or The Anatomy of Bones (1733),
from Osteographia, or The Anatomy of Bones (1733),
by William Cheselden.
illustrations by Gerard Vandergucht and Jacob Schijnvoet.
illustrations by Gerard Vandergucht and Jacob Schijnvoet.
For more illustrations from this very important work see - http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/cheseldens-osteographia-1733/
We will come to William Cheselden (1688 - 1752) in this blog in due course.
Cheselden was a friend and the Physician of Alexander Pope, a member of the St Martin's Lane Academy founding governer of the Foundling Hospitaland sat for his portrait by Roubiliac - a plaster version is in the Royal College of Surgeons
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Peter Scheemakers.
Kirkleatham (Yorks): Mausoleum,
Church of St Cuthbert.
Design for the monument to Marwood William Turner, c.1739.
Soane Museum.
The Monument to Marwood William Turner (as built), who died aged 21 at Lyon, whilst making his Grand Tour by Scheemakers as erected c. 1740/2.
see -
T Friedman,
'Scheemakers's Monument to the Best of Sons', Burlington Magazine,
January 1980, 61-5;
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Theodore Jacobsen
by Thomas Hudson
Oil on canvas, 236.2 x 137.1 cm.
1746.
Foundling Museum
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Monument to Peregrine Bertie 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven.
1748.
St Michael and All Angels,
Main St.
Edenham. Lincolnshire.
Henry Cheere.
see - London Evening Post August 1748.
See future posts on this blog for the remarkable collection of 18th century monuments at Edenham.
This church is a must for anyone interested in 18th century funerary monuments, but also has a fine collection of Saxon and early English carved stonework.
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Statuette of Hercules resting after his eleventh labour holding the apple of the Hesperides.
Michael Rysbrack.
Signed Mich. Rysbrack 1744.
Stourhead
Painted Terracotta.
600 mm.
Inspired by the Farnese Hercules.
Left to Henry Hoare in the Will of Michael Rysbrack 1770.
This is a model for the over life size Hercules in Marble of 1747 now in the Pantheon (designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1753/4) at Stourhead.
National Trust.
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Monument to Sir John Dutton d.1743
Michael Rysbrack.
Sherborne, Gloucestershire.
1749.
'He represented this County in Parliament with great integrity'.
Retrieved the family fortunes by two judicious marriages after his fathers near disastrous gambling habit.
Dutton family records at Gloucester Records Office
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Lead Statuette of Pope by John Cheere c.1749.
Height 47 cms.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Charles Seymour Duke of Somerset (1662 - 1748)
Chancellor of the University 1689 - 1748
A rare example of a statue dressed in the van Dyck style.
Note the lace collar.
Michael Rysbrack
1756
Senate House
Cambridge.
Another poor quality black and white photograph of the Duke of Somerset
Senate House, Cambridge
Michael Rysbrack
1756.
Photograph: Conway Library.
Free standing statues in the 18th century apart from Royalty are relatively unusual, Roubiliac's Shakespeare from Hampton for Garrick, his Isaac Newton at Trinity, his Forbes and Molineux, and Sir George Cooke by Henry Cheere, are further examples.
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A near-life-size portrait of Alexander Thistlethwayte, illustrating the Craggs / Shakespeare pose,, who was representative of Hampshire in the House of Commons 1751–1761, his wife Sarah, and their daughters Anne and Catherine. As the elder daughter Catherine was depicted in pink, which was a colour frequently worn by betrothed women, the portrait could have been commissioned to commemorate her forthcoming wedding. The work probably hung in the family home at Southwick Place, Hampshire, in Thistlethwayte's lifetime.
Thomas Hudson (1701 - 79).
c. 1758.
Yale Centre for British Art.
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|
David Garrick.
19th Century Copy of the painting destroyed in a fire at Stratford.
The Palladian Bridge at Prior Park, Widcombe, Bath in the background.
After
Gainsborough.
National
Trust - Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
Oil
on Canvas.
1137 x
756 mm.
The bust
of Shakespeare looks to be a version of the Rysbrack terracotta now at the
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Another
version of this painting is in the Folger Shakespeare Library.
The
Original by Gainsborough was exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great
Britain at Spring Gardens Charing Cross in 1766.
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For my and hopefully the readers amusement - a few more instances of the Craggs pose
William Farington of Shawe Hall, Lancashire. ca. 1743
Arthur Devis.
Portrait by Arthur Devis
Portrait of Unknown Man
Devis
Birmingham Museums Trust
Devis again
Metropolitan Museum
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William Wollaston, MP, Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1759.
The Holburne Museum, Bath
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