The Plaster Busts (Part 1).
Supplied by
Pier Angelo Sarti (1793 - 1868).
Now at Wimpole Hall, Cambridge
National Trust
Images courtesy Art Uk sculpture database website.
Alexander Pope after Roubiliac
Bronzed Plaster.
Height 62 x W 45 x D 20 cm.
The bronzing appears to have recently been refreshed.
Comparison with the British Museum plaster known to have come from the Roubiliac Studio bought at the posthumous sale by Dr Maty, suggests that this bust was cast from a mould closely related to the BM bust.
One of a suite of busts by Sarti at Wimpole - Dryden, Locke, and Milton all have the same eared base to the bust on the socle found on classical busts and much used by Cavaceppi and Albacini sculptors working in Rome in the 18th century.
There is also a plaster bust of William Pitt the Younger after Nollekens at Wimpole bronzed in the same fashion which they say is by Sarti (this needs to be checked).
These busts may originally have been at Wimpole, but are more
likely to have been acquired as a job lot after 1936” by Captain George and
Elsie Bambridge, who owned and refurnished the house.
The type of socle on this was also much used by the plaster figure manufacturers Benjamin and Robert Shout (c. 1760 - 1835) of Holborn, busts of Pope, Milton, Locke and Dryden all appear in an undated early 19th century unillustrated catalogue of Charles Harris (d. 1795) with a price list and dated 1777.
see my blog post - http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2016/01/charles-harris-catalogue.html
They also appear on the Sarti Busts at the Athenaeum with the rest of the socle cut off.
see -
http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/athenaeum/catalogue.html
This website provides an excellent potted history by John Kenworthy Brown of the 14 busts supplied by Sarti in or just after 1830 to the Athenaeum.
The British Museum Plaster Bust of Alexander Pope.
Height: 62 centimetres.
Width: 42 centimetres (max.)
Depth: 21.30 centimetres.
Acquired from the posthumous sale of the contents of
Roubiliac's studio at St Martin's Lane.
Presented by Dr Matthew Maty, 1762, who purchased it at
Roubiliac's sale, either lot 9, first day's sale, 12 May 1762, or lot 3 or lot
14, second day's sale, 13 May 1762, or lot 2, third day's sale, 14 May 1762.
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For the further examples of this Roubiliac bust of Pope including the marble in the Royal Collection see -
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Alexander Pope.
Roubiliac. probably carved in the workshop.
The V and A Marble bust.
Height with Pedestal 62.7 cms.
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Alexander Pope.
after Roubiliac.
Plaster bust
560 cms.
The panelled socle was frequently used by John Cheere.
The bust is slightly shorter than the other Roubiliac type plasters having lost a couple of inches off the bottom of the drapery
The Plaster has a pronounced forward lean and the hair is
slightly cruder than the Barber Roubiliac terracotta of Pope, but the modelling of the
face, neck and clothing is of excellent quality (note the second smaller fold on
the edge of the chemise).
The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, Volume
95, Part 2, 1825, with reference to Stourhead mentions "a most spirited
bust of Pope by Roubiliac which is generally admired".
The attribution to Harris of the Strand of c 1780 by various
authors, I think should be questioned.
My current opinion is that it is a reduced version from the
Roubiliac workshop.
The Stourhead bust of Alexander Pope.
Photographs above by the author.
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Alexander Pope.
After Roubiliac.
Plaster.
Sold alongside busts of Milton, etc at Sotheby's sale, Prior
Park Bath, 29 October, 1998.
Property of William Rees Mogg.
A Roubiliac type very similar to the bust at Stourhead the head again with a pronounced forward lean, but this one less truncated with a different, Cavaceppi type socle.
This style of socle was much used by Shout and Sarti.
Wimsatt was unaware of this bust.
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The Athenaeum Plaster Bust of Alexander Pope.
A lost Plaster bust of Alexander Pope (1688-1744) by Sarti was formerly at the Athenaeum and is one of the four busts now missing.
Supplied by P Sarti in 1830. This is not the marble bust by Rysbrack which was bequeathed to the Club in 1868 and sold in 1986, but a plaster almost certainly based on the bust by Roubiliac as the Wimpole Hall example illustrated above.
There is a bronzed bust of Pope, which was formerly at Shardeloes and now at Birmingham (Baker, 128, 155, fig.66). but a close inspection reveals that the Shardloes bust is the same type as the bust in the Wren Library, Trinity College Cambridge and is a version of Pope by Cheere - a telling detail is the embroidery on the drapery which is a typical Cheere feature in my opinion (see my post). Below is another plaster bust perhaps also by Cheere.
see - http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/02/
In 1833, the Athenæum bust was paired with one of Locke.
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The Calke Abbey busts.
Possibly supplied by John Cheere.
The form of socle is typical of Cheere.
The Calke Abbey bust of Pope alongside the busts of Shakespeare and Milton.
Alexander Pope.
Plaster.
540 x 330 mm.
Calke Abbey - National Trust.
Perhaps by John Cheere .
The style of the socle and embroidered drapery on this bust were much used by Cheere.
This bust is very close to a marble bust of Pope photographed by the author in a private collection in Twickenham in 2001 see:
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014_01_19_archive.html
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The Sarti bust of Pope was moved downstairs at the Athenaeum in 1846, and there is no further
mention of it.
Info above from John Kenworthy Brown - see -
http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/athenaeum/catalogue.html
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A Plaster bust of Pope signed JP Papern (Papera), 16
Marylebone St, Golden Square, was in the possession of Mrs Webb and mentioned
in her book Michael Rysbrack, Sculptor, pub. 1954 p. 78.
Note: Bartholomew Papera
fl. 1790 d.1815. Early 19th century London plaster figure seller.
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For a catalogue of plaster anatomical figures by Sarti circa 1850 see -
