Hugh Boulter - Bust in Christ Church College Gallery, Oxford

Hugh Boulter (1672 - (1742).

Archbishop of Armagh.

Anonymous Marble Bust.

Christ Church College Gallery, Oxford.

Anonymous, competent but rather undistinguished bust 

the cutting of the hair is quite crude.

To me it feels that it was probably posthumous taken from an engraving.

Perhaps Henry Cheere or Scheemakers studio.

The remarkable Rococo Monument to Dr Hugh Boulter

Archbishop of Armagh

Formerly Bishop of Bristol

North Transept Westminster Abbey

Henry Cheere.
Erected in 1746.

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/hugh-boulter/

Westminster Abbey have uprated their website - not before time - and although the images are not high resolution they are a vast improvement on the previous incarnation.

The inscription reads -

"Dr HUGH BOULTER, 

late Archbishop of ARMAGH and Primate of all IRELAND. 

A prelate so eminent 

for the accomplishments of his mind, 

the purity of his heart, 

and the excellency of his life, 

that it may be superfluous 

to specify his titles, 

recount his virtues, 

or even erect a monument to his fame: 

his titles he not only deserv'd but adorn'd, 

his virtues he manifest in his good works, 

which had never dazzled the public eye 

if they had not been too bright to be conceal'd; 

And, as to his fame, 

who so every has any sense of merit, 

any reverence for piety, 

any passion for his country, 

or any charity for mankind, 

will assist in preserving it fair and spotless; 

that when brass and marble shall mix with the dust they cover, 

every succeeding age 

may have the benefit of his illustrious example. 

He was born Jan. the 4th 1671, 

he was consecrated bishop of BRISTOL 1718, 

he was translated to the Archbishopric of ARMAGH 1723, 

and from thence to Heaven, Sept. the 27th 1742."

Is this bust by Cheere or was it sub contracted?

______________________________________

Dr Hugh Boulter

The obvious soource of the mezzotints below

Oil on canvas

126.4 x 101.5 cms

bequeathed to the museumby William Jerdone Braikenridge, 1908

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.

image from Art UK

Dr Hugh Boulter

A version of the portrait above

oil on canvas

124.5 x 99.1 cms

Christ Church College, Oxford.

Image courtesy Art UK

_______________________________________

Dr Hugh Boulter

After Francis Bindon

c.1742

1242 x 1003 mm.

National Portrait Gallery

Crudely painted, NPG 502 is conceivably an early copy of Francis Bindon's portrait at Trinity College, Dublin, painted in 1742 as a 'memorial of the Archbishop's charitable efforts during the famine of 1740-41’. [1] Although the sitter is shown much younger in Thomas Beard's mezzotint, 1728, after Matthew Ashton, the design is similar to NPG 502 and the face mask close to Bindon's.

Footnotes

W. G. Strickland, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures ... in Trinity College, Dublin, and in the Provost's House, Dublin, 1916, pp 10-11; Dictionary of National Biography, II, p 915.

Bought, 1878, from R. Gibbings of Trinity College, Dublin, by whom stated to have been in the Castle Caldwell collection, County Fermanagh; on loan to the National Gallery of Ireland, 1899-1969.

Dr Hugh Boulter

Oil on Canvas 

123 x 98 cms

Another anonymous version of the portrait above

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

Image courtesy Art UK

_________________________________

Dr Hugh Boulter.

Mezzotint.

by Thomas Beard after Matthew Ahton

350 x 246mm

1728.

British Museum.

__________________________________

Dr Hugh Boulter

Mezzotint

Thomas Beard after Matthew Ashton

369 x 252 mm.

Published in Dublin

1728.

National Portrait Gallery

__________________________

Dr Hugh Boulter

Mezzotint

360 x 356 mm

John Brookes after Michael Dahl

The print depicts Robert Howard in the first two states before being altered to Hugh Boulter

1740 - 56

British Museum

________________________________

Dr Hugh Boulter

Mezzotint after Francis Bindon

by John Brooks

508 x 374 mm.

1742 - 56?

British Museum