Richard Miller Terracotta at Queen's College, Oxford and Marble in the Vestry of St Martin in the Fields by Michael Rysbrack

Richard Miller. (c.1652 - 1724).

The Marble and Terracotta Busts.

by Michael Rysbrack (1694 - 1770).

The terracotta bust signed and dated  MICHL. RYSBRACK. 1726/7.

at Queens College, Oxford.




The subject of this bust is something of a mystery - the extracts provided below tell us as much as we know.

He is recorded in the Album Benefactorum of Queen's College, Oxford in 1716 - 17 as donating £100 towards the building of the Chapel.

He was also a great benefactor to the Parish of St Martin's in the Field Westminster providing £500 for the Charity Schools, £300 for the Free School and Library and £300 for the building of the Vestry House.

In his very short Will (Prob 11 / 600) written 4th October 1718, Richard Miller of South Hinksey, left to his daughter Mary, his tenanted house in St Thomas Parish, Oxford he also bequeaths her all his goods and chattels - to his other daughter and son Matthew he left one shilling!


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I am very grateful to Graeme Salmon of Queens College, Oxford for permission to photograph this bust and for his enthusiastic welcome and assistance when visiting Queen's College.

The marble bust is in the Vestry of St Martin's in the Fields, Westminster.

I am also very grateful to Helena Tarrant, Church Coordinator at St Martin's in the Fields for obtaining permission to photograph the marble and for all her assistance, particularly for finding a ladder so that the bust could be inspected at close quarters.

Also thanks are again due to Dana Josephson for suggesting and aiding me with this project.

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There are brief notes and photographs of the two busts in Michael Rysbrack, Sculptor by M.I. Webb pub. Country Life, 1954.

The terracotta bust  at Queen's was formerly mistaken for a bust of  Sir Christopher Wren and prior to that to as a bust of Voltaire.

The relationship between these two busts was first noted in an article by Katherine Esdaile in The Architectural Review of 1944.

The terracotta is possibly the bust mentioned by the engraver and diarist George Vertue (1684 - 1756) in 1732 as Muller.   - see Vertue III, 56 - Walpole Soc. Journal.

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The Terracotta Bust and Marble Busts of Richard Miller
Queens College, Oxford.

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All photographs taken by the author.

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Extract from The Gentleman's Magazine Vol 60 part I, 1790.

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Extract below from Catalogue of Portraits in the Possession of the University, Colleges, City and County of Oxford. Mrs Reginald Lane Poole, Vol II, pub Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1925. refering to the terracotta bust at Queen's College, Oxford.

https://archive.org/details/b22652061_0002

The Queens College bust of Miller in the Library
Photography by Henry Taunt, 1906.
Photograph from Historic England Archive

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The Marble Bust of Richard Miller by Michael Rysbrack

Currently located above the front door, in the vestibule 
of the Vestry of St Martin's in the Fields, Westminster.

All photographs here taken by the author.
Something of a challenge to photograph this bust - very little light.
Fortunately Helena Tarrant of St Martin's was able to commandeer a set of step ladders.

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Richard Miller

Oil on Canvas

123.3 x 100 cms

1723

Queen's College, Oxford.

Given by the Sitter.

Inscribed "RICHARDUS MILLER GENEROSUS COLL. REG. D.D. TENEMENTUM. ETC. ET EX OCCIDENTALI  PARTE HOSPE: IN USUM PRAEPOSITI A.D. 1723

Richard Miller lived at South Hinksey, Oxford and gave £100 towards the Queen's College building programme. 

The inscription on the back of the canvas, which has been relined probably in the nineteenth century, may be a copy of some original inscription erroneously transcribed as 'T. Weurzag Se' and which Poole interprets as standing for 'T Murray Fecit'. 

The attribution to Murray has been challenged.

Image and info here from Art U.K.

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Mrs or Mary Miller.

daughter of Richard Miller.

attributed to Jonathan Richardson (c. 1665 - 1745).

Oil on Canvas.

125.5 x 101cms.

before 1724.

Queen's College, Oxford.

Given to the College by Richard Miller.

Image from Art U.K.

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View of the West Front of the Parish Church of St Martin's in the Fields, Westminster before demolition and replacement.
Engraving
George Vertue
1720.


The Vestry House is on the left hand side, on the North side of St Martin's Place.

Image Courtesy British Museum


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St Martin's in the Fields.
Westminster.
View of the South and West Fronts.
1754
Image - British Museum.

The Vestry House to the lefdt is on the North side of St Martin's Place.

The earliest record of a parish school at St. Martin's is an entry in the churchwardens' accounts for 1571: "payd to geyls quarrell for setinge the scolhowse wyndowe & for vj newe q'rels iijs ijd." Ben Jonson received his early education at this school, which was probably situated beside the church. In 1614–15 a new schoolhouse and vestry room was built adjoining the church on the south side. This building is shown in Vertue's drawing of the old church .

 The Vestry met in the upper room, the school being housed on the ground floor until 1693, when the scholars were transferred to Archbishop Tenison's school (see p. 113). The old schoolroom was used as a session house from 1706 until the church was pulled down. A new vestry hall was built at the south-east corner of the churchyard in 1728, and demolished in 1828. 113–4).

The buildings in St. Martin's Place which comprise the Vestry Hall, Vicarage, and National Schools were erected circa 1830 as part of the Charing Cross improvement scheme. The façade of the schools bears the inscription "St. Martin's National Schools. Built by Subscription on Ground the Gift of His Majesty King George IV. MDCCCXXX." (fn. n1) By the deed of grant, dated 20th July, 1833, the Crown conveyed to the Vicar and Churchwardens a piece of ground on the north side of the churchyard 98 feet by 28 feet together with the school building lately erected there to be used as a National School for the education of poor children of the parish. A nominal rent of £1 per annum was to be paid.

St Martin's in the Field was designed by James Gibbs.

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 19th March 1722 and the church was completed in December 1724.

St Martin's in the Field from the West with the King's Mews in the foreground
This was replaced by the National Gallery in 1834.

It is my intention to treat St Martin's Lane, the epicentre of the London Art world in the mid 18th century, much more thoroughly in the future.
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Michael Rysbrack.

attributed to the circle? of Jonathan Richardson.
c. 1730.

Oil on Canvas 74 x 64.1 cms.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Image from Art U.K.

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Westminster School Bust of Locke perhaps after Roubiliac.

John Locke (1632 - 1704.

Marble bust.

Anonymous.

Perhaps after an original by Louis Francois  Roubiliac.

at Westminster School. Westminster, London.

This post is part of an ongoing investigation into the 17th and 18th Century Portrait Sculpture at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Readers of this blog will know that I have recently posted extensively on the lead bust of Locke by John Cheere at the Bodleian Library and the marble bust by Edward Hodges Baily at Magdalen College, Oxford.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/01/busts-of-john-locke-and-francis-bacon.html

I am very grateful to Elizabeth Wells, Archivist at Westminster School, London for organising our visit to Westminster School, many thanks are also due to Charlotte Robinson, Assistant Archivist at Westminster School for opening doors and guiding us to the sculptures at the school and last but not least many thanks to Dana Josephson for organising the visit and suggesting the Oxford Portrait Sculpture Project to me.

I will be posting on the bust of Dr Richard Busby and Inigo Jones also at Westminster School in the near future.

The busts are all derived from the portrait by Godfrey Kneller.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-portraits-of-john-locke-by-and.html

John Locke.

After Godfrey Kneller.

Westminster School.

Westminster, London.

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The Putative Roubiliac Bust of Locke.

Location unknown.

The socle is a replacement and could be improved upon.

Until the bust of Locke, sold at Sotheby's Lot 148 23 March 1971 (below) reappears this will probably be my last post on the subject of the portrait sculpture of John Locke.

Image kindly supplied by Merel Dienema of the Sculpture Department at Sotheby's,  Bond Street, London.

It should be noted that the quality of this missing bust is somewhat finer than the other versions of the Locke bust at Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, the bust of Locke noted in the collection of Harte Kingston upon Thames in 1987 (info and photograph  in the Heinz Archive, NPG), and the Westminster School bust depicted below. 

Particular note should be taken of the quality of the cutting of the eyes and the stitching on the button holes plainly visible on the Sotheby's bust.

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For much more on the busts of John Locke by Guelphi, Rysbrack, Scheemakers and their reproduction by John Cheere see link below and it's the following posts.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/busts-of-john-locke-and-francis-bacon.html

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John Locke.

Marble.

Height 690 mm. without socle 580 mm.

Perhaps after a lost original by Roubiliac.

Westminster School.

The bronze bust (above middle) and the Bodleian (above right) are both versions taken from an original by John Cheere bust perhaps based on an original by Roubiliac, an example in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, 

The Bronze is currently on the London Art market, it is impressive from a distance but the lead is of finer quality.

At first glance the Westminster marble is an impressive bust but close inspection would suggest that, as those two busts above, it is a coarser version of an earlier (lost or undiscovered) original perhaps by Louis Francois Roubiliac, from which the bust by Edward Hodges Baily which is inscribed  "Copied  by EH Baily from the original by Roubiliac" is derived.

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The Westminster School, the Bodleian Lead and the Wren Library, Trinity College Cambridge Busts of John Locke.

Illustrated  below is the Westminster School bust alongside the lead (Bodlean Library) and plaster (Wren Library) busts here ascribed to John Cheere of Hyde Park Corner. 

for the Bodleian Bust see-

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-lead-bust-of-john-locke-in-bodleian.html

Cheere appears to have adapted versions of several famous busts by contemporary sculptors such as Roubiliac, Rysbrack and Scheemakers to produce his own versions - he seems to have been especially fond of adding embroidered waistcoats popular at the time - these include busts of Alexander Pope, Frederick Handel and Isaac Newton such as those at West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire and the busts at in the Wren Library at Trinity College Cambridge.

As far as we know John Cheere only supplied plaster or lead sculpture and did not supply marble busts.

For more on the Bronze bust of Locke see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-bronze-bust-of-john-locke.html

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Roubiliac and Locke.

The only reason we have to suspect that Roubiliac also made a version of a bust of John Locke is that the marble bust of Locke at Magdalen College, University of Oxford is inscribed on the back -

 Copied by E.H. Baily.

 From the Original by Roubiliac.

 

It is paired with another bust by Bailey of Francis Bacon which is also derived from the Roubiliac model in the Wren Library, Trinity College Cambridge, the terracotta prototype is at Wilton House the finished marble is at the Wren Library Trinity College, Cambridge. (see my next post).

 

Whilst it is always possible that Edward Hodges Baily was mistaken about the author of the original bust, I believe that this is unlikely, especially given that it has always been accompanied by the bust of Bacon adapted from the Roubiliac version (Terracotta at Wilton and Marble in the Wren Library, Trinity College Cambridge).

The first mention of a bust of Locke by Baily after Roubiliac.

 Christie's Sale - Robert Vernon Esq. 5 July 1849. Lot 101 - sold for £45.13.

 Bought Sir G Sergeller (?) This perhaps refers to a member of the Seguier family of noted art dealers.

 

The two busts of Locke and Bacon by Hodges Bailey after Roubiliac are described as being in the Library at Magdalen College in 1866 in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science... Vol. 4; vol.67.

 

There is a marble bust of Newton by Hodges Bailey copied from the bust by Roubiliac in the Wren Library which is now in The National portrait Gallery - it differs slightly from the original in detail (as do both of these busts) in that the sculptor has omitted the inner chemise. It is also dated 1828.

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Note from a curator at Kelvingrove.

This sculpture was purchased from Mrs. W.M. Thompson (vendor), Northumberland in 1961 and came from the Runciman Collection? with an attribution to either Rysbrack or Guelfi. 

At that time, Dr Whinney at the Courtauld Institute was consulted and she leaned more to Rysbrack, thinking the sculpture was “too good” to be by Guelfi. But she also thought there was a possibility it could be by Roubiliac...

This information above kindly provided by Winnie Tyrrell, Photo Library Coordinator at Glasgow Life/Glasgow Museums.

The Runciman Collection presumably refers to that of William Ist Viscount Runciman of Doxford (1870 - 1949). He was the son of Walter Runciman First Baron Runciman self made shipping magnate of South Shields.

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The Hart Bust of Locke.

The bust of Locke in the possession of J Hart, Kingston in 1988.

Photograph from an unknown source.

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The Country Life bust of Locke.

Query published 17 March 1960.

Not Alexander Pope and not by Guelfi.

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The Marble Bust of Locke.

by Giovanni Battista Guelfi

Royal Collection.

https://www.rct.uk/collection/1395/john-locke-1632-1704

Literature: -

 G. Balderston, 'Giovanni Battista Guelfi: five busts for Queen Caroline's Hermitage in Richmond', in Sculpture Journal, 17.1 (2008), pp. 83-88.

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A List of the 18th Century Busts of John Locke in (more or less) chronological order -

The first Lead bust - probably a version of the bust now at Yale Centre for British Art New Haven Conn. USA and mentioned in the van Nost I sale catalogue of April 1712.

The Michael Rysbrack Portland Stone bust  in the Temple of Worthies at Stowe after 1735, carved for an earlier building at Stowe in 1729.

The bust by the execrable Guelfi from Queen Caroline's Grotto, c 1730, now in the Royal Collection (see photograph below). - https://www.rct.uk/collection/1395/john-locke-1632-1704

A bust possibly by Roubiliac - perhaps that sold Sotheby's 23 March 1971 (for a photocopy of the photograph - see above). The location of this bust is unknown. There are probably at least 4 versions of this bust extant but none with a secure 18th Century provenance including -.

1. The Marble bust sold Sotheby's, Lot 148, on 23 March 1971.

2. .The Marble bust sold to the Glasgow Museums by Mrs WM Thomson in 1961 now in the Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow.

 3. The Marble version sold at the Messrs Phillips Auction - The Gennings Sale, Lot 220 - 26 / 27 May 1972, with a private owner in 1987. (Photo in Heinz Archive). The Hart/Kingston Bust with a Mr J Hart 303 Kings Road, Kingston on Thames in 1988.

4. The Marble version at Westminster School(above).

 

Various plaster busts in two sizes and a lead bust probably by John Cheere all based on the 'Roubiliac' type bust.


The Marble Bust of Locke, signed by Peter Scheemakers in Trinity Library, Dublin, supplied c 1745.

see https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/02/bust-of-john-locke-by-peter-scheemakers.html

A Bust of Locke was sold at the Scheemakers sale Lot 54, 11 March 1756 (£22. 1s) which is possibly that mentioned below.

Sold at Christie's King Street, London, from the Collection of Sir Albert Richardson.  Lot 45, 18 - 19th September 2013, incorrectly identified as by Guelfi.

 Provenance - Almost certainly Charles Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke (1836-1897) at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, and by descent at Wimpole.

Thomas Agar-Robartes, 6th Viscount Clifden at Wimpole Hall from 1894 and by descent.

Captain and Mrs George Bambridge at Wimpole Hall, acquired in situ in 1938.

Probably Collins & Clark, Cambridge, where acquired circa 1951.

see - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/02/bust-of-john-locke-by-peter-scheemakers.html

A cast of a bust of Locke sold at the Scheemakers sale of 6 June 1771.





Another Rysbrack version of 1756 (the terracotta for Lord Lyttleton), which was unsold at Christie's in December 2010, the form of this bust was used again in full length statue at Christ Church, Oxford.

The busts by Guelfi, Scheemakers and Rysbrack are all easily distinguishable from each other.

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For Reference The Scheemakers busts .

On the left the Richardson Bust - on the right the Trinity College Library, Dublin Bust.

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The 18th Century Portraits of John Locke.

A small selection all derived from the original portrait by Godfrey Kneller.

Note to anyone interested in engraved portrait the website of the National Galleries of Scotland should be the first port of call. Superb selection with hi res downloads.

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/search?artists%5B6789%5D=6789&page

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John Locke

Smith 

 1721.

Mezzotint.

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John Locke.

 

after Godfrey Kneller.

George Vertue. 

1713.

Engraving.

251 x 162 mm.

National Galleries of Scotland.

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Locke.

After Kneller .

Bernard Picart.

1721.

Image courtesy Rijksmuseum.

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Locke.

George Vertue.

1738.

Image courtesy National Galleries of Scotland.