Each drawing measures - H 20.1 x W 16.2 cms.
Purchased by the Museum in 1891.
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A List of the drawings in no particular order.
1. Inscribed Turenne - here suggested as a bust of Louis II of Bourbon, the Grand Condé.
2. Lord Ligonier.
3. Charles I.
4. Inscribed Lord Stafford - here identified as Charles Whitworth (1675–1725), 1st Baron Whitworth.
5. Isaac Newton - here tentatively identified as David Garrick.
6. Inscribed Lord Lister - here identified as Thomas Coke, Ist Earl of Leicester.
7. Richard Meade.
Chantilly inventory of 1846, fo 19, n ° 93 ( terracotta bust
of the Grand Condé; date of entry: July 23, 1843; origin: Palais-Bourbon 294 ;
sent to England in August 1852 )
“M. le Duc d’Argyle fait faire deux Bustes en marbre, l’un du grand Condé, l’autre du Maréchal de Turenne. Il n’employe point M. Rysbrack, mais les Connoisseurs n’estiment pas moins la main dont il se sert. C’est celle de M. Roubillac, jeune François, éleve & digne imitateur du célebre Coustou.”
This report is based on an article in the London periodical The Free Briton 195 (August 16, 1733). Both the English source and Prévost’s slightly truncated version are concerned with Rysbrack’s sculptures, and this passage added by Prévost in a footnote introduces Roubiliac as an alternative to Rysbrack.
This is the first documented reference to Roubiliac working in England.
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This pair of busts by Roubiliac 1733 - Marshal Turenne and the Prince de Condé are so far untraced.
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For the pair of busts of Turenne and the Grande Condé by Roubiliac see -
Malcolm Baker's essay on busts of Turenne and the Duc de Condé made for the Duke of Argyll in 1733, 'Ancient and modern, French and English: the Duke of Argyll's gallery at Adderbury', in M. Baker, Figured in Marble: the making and viewing of sculpture in eighteenth-century Britain, London.
The Ligonier busts at the Roubiliac posthumous sale.
Three plaster busts were sold at the posthumous Roubiliac Sale at his house in St Martin's Lane on May 12 1762 and the following three days.For a transcript of the complete catalogue see below.
A plaster bust was sold on the first day - lot 11.
The mould was sold on the first day Lot 47.
Third day - Lot 4, A plaster bust of Ligonier.
Two plaster busts were sold on the fourth day - lots 9 and 17.
John First Earl Ligonier (1680 - 1770).
Lord Ligonier.
The socle with the circular plate on this bust is similar to other Roubiliac busts.
For the marble bust of Lord Ligonier in the Royal Collection see my post
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2017/10/busts-of-george-ii-and-john-first-earl.html
The socle here is similar to that used on the Roubiliac Marble Bust of Andrew Fountaine on the monument at Narford, Norfolk (below), and to the marble busts of Andrew Fountaine and Martin Folkes by Roubiliac at Wilton House.
The Roubiliac bust of Ligonier also employs the drapery pattern seen in two other late busts by Roubiliac – the bust of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697–1759), on Coke’s monument in St Mary, Tittleshall, Norfolk, (see below). A plaster version is in the marble Hall at Holkham Norfolk;
and the so called Fordham marble bust of Shakespeare in The Folger Library Washington DC. which was perhaps Lot 74, sold on the fourth day of the Roubiliac Sale on Saturday 15th May 1762. Given that there are no marble versions of the terracotta so called Davenant bust of Shakespeare (at the Garrick Club) and the bust donated to the BM by Matthew Maty, extant or mentioned elsewhere this seems a very distinct possibility.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-folger-library-marble-bust-of.html
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The Bust of Lord Ligonier.
Roubiliac.
in the Royal Collection.
John, 1st Earl Ligonier, by Roubiliac
Provenance - by inheritance to Mrs Lloyd of Gloucester Place, London, by whom presented to George IV on 27 June 1817.
The socle has been replaced. see the image of the stairwell at Carlton House with the busts of Ligonier and George II on their original socles.
Malcolm Baker says Jonathan Marsden that the original socle for the bust of George II has reappeared.
Images here from
Royal Collection Website.
https://www.rct.uk/collection/35256/john-ligonier-1680-1770-1st-earl-ligonier
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The NPG terracotta of Ligonier by Roubiliac.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03912/John-Ligonier-1st-Earl-Ligonier
18" tall including the socle.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03912/John-Ligonier-1st-Earl-Ligonier
"NPG 2013 corresponds with the undated marble at Windsor incised L.F.Roubiliac sc. ad Vivum and must be the model. Mrs Esdaile places it possibly circa 1748 but more probably from the last years of the sculptor's life.
Roubiliac died 1762. Ligonier received the Bath in 1743 but sittings would have been difficult before the end of the war, 1748.
In 1926 W. T. Whitley discovered a contemporary reference to 'A Bust' of the sitter exhibited by Roubiliac at the Society of Artists 1761 (153) and an entry 3 February 1763 'To paid Mr Roubilliacs bill for £153 11s’has been found in the regimental account kept by Ligonier's agent Richard Cox. [2]
The payment, which must have been to the sculptor's estate, has been taken to refer to the Windsor marble, but unfortunately the supporting personal ledger where details might have been expected cannot be traced. [3]
Mrs Esdaile believed the marble was a royal commission; this is prima facie evidence to the contrary. Furthermore, according to Benjamin Justham, inventory clerk to George IV, the Roubiliac busts of Ligonier and George II were presented, 27 June 1817, by a Thomas Lloyd of 112 Gloucester Place, London. [4]
Four plasters and a mould of the bust were in the Roubiliac sale of 1762, lots 11 and 47 of the 1st day, lot 4 of the 3rd day and lots 9 and 17 of the 4th day. [5] These have since disappeared.
Condition: cracks at the base of the shoulders and in front, below the star of the Bath and in the fur above the centre line of the breastplate, have been repaired; an area at the edge of the collar on his left shoulder has been painted in; the tip of his left shoulder is damaged at the back; a few small areas of white visible in some of the valleys of the wig; 19th-century(?) rose-coloured plaster socle now faded.
2. Letter, The Times, 28 December 1926, unpublished, NPG archives.
3. '1st Foot Guards Viscount Ligonier', f.137, archives of Messrs Lloyds Bank (Cox & King’s branch). Kindly verified by Mr M.A. Clancy, cp Whitworth, p.380 and note 2.
4. G. de Bellaigue, letter, 30 March 1972, NPG archives.
5. Esdaile, pp.219-27. [6]
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A bust of Lord Ligonier was exhibited by Roubiliac at the Society of Artists in 1761.
No material was specified suggesting that this bust of Ligonier was most likely to be a terracotta, but it was possibly a plaster.
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The Ligonier busts at the Roubiliac posthumous sale.
Three plaster busts were sold at the posthumous Roubiliac Sale at his house in St Martin's Lane on May 12 1762 and the following three days.For a transcript of the complete catalogue see below.
A plaster bust was sold on the first day - lot 11.
The mould was sold on the first day Lot 47.
Third day - Lot 4, A plaster bust of Ligonier.
Two plaster busts were sold on the fourth day - lots 9 and 17.
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The Roubiliac Busts of Ligonier and George II at Carlton House.
Aquatint of the staircase well at Carlton House showing the two busts with their original socles
From Pyne's Royal Residences, 1819.
Engraver: Thomas Sutherland after
Published by: W. H. Pyne, 36 Upper Charlotte Street, Fitzroy
Square.
I am very grateful to Sally Goodsir Curator of Decorative Arts of the Royal Collection for informing me of the photograph below which shows the original socle now returned to the Roubiliac bust of George II.
For a photograph of the Royal Collection Roubiliac bust of George II reunited with its original socle which can be found on the Google Arts and Culture website -
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/george-ii/UwHNTLDsfdTfkg?hl=en-GB&avm=2
The Roubiliac Bust of George II recently reunited with his original socle.
Royal Collection.
Roubiliac appears to have adapted the form of socle used in the 17th century on several busts by unidentified sculptors but possibly those by Peter Besnier. A pair of plaster busts from Easton Neston of Lord William and Lady Fermor, the bronze bust of Catherine Murray, Countess of Dysart at Ham House and the bronze bust of Venetia Lady Digby (private Collection) all have socles with volutes on either side.
Malcolm Baker, in an essay in the Burlington Magazine makes the case for the pair of busts being created especially for niches in the Gallery at Ligonier's house in 12 North Audley Street, Grosvenor Square (designed c 1728 / 1730 and attributed to Edward Lovett Pierce) with the socles made to echo the horizontal volutes on either side of the centre tablet of the Kentian chimneypiece.
I am not convinced I find this difficult to reconcile with the visual evidence. The niches at the ends of the gallery appear too tall and were probably intended to contain statues and the cupboards? either side of the chimneypiece appear to be too small in width.
See my next post for some thoughts on the subject of the socles of this pair of busts
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-roubiliac-ligonier-bust-and-its.html
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The Nollekens Harris / Preston Drawing of Charles I.
Another bust presumably from the Roubiliac Sale - either lot 79 on second day's sale, 13 May 1762,
or lot 74 the terracotta on the third day of the sale, 14 May 1762.
............................................
Charles I.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Wallace Collection.
The Marble Bust of Charles I
Roubiliac.
The Wallace Collection.
.........................................
Bust of Charles I.
Roubiliac.
The British Museum Terracotta
The original for the Wallace Collection marble bust.
Presented to the British Museum by Dr Matthew Maty, 1762, who purchased it at Roubiliac's sale, either lot 79 on second day's sale, 13 May 1762, or lot 74 on third day's sale, 14 May 1762.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_S-7-46
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The Roubiliac Terracotta bust of Charles I at the Courtauld.
Include here because it illustrates the same drapery as that used by Roubiliac on his marble and terracotta busts of Viscount Ligonier and the Fordham Marble bust of Shakespeare at the Folger Library, Washington DC.
Charles I.
Terracotta.
no size given,
Roubiliac.
https://courtauld.ac.uk/highlights/workshop-of-roubilliac/
They say workshop? of Roubiliac c. 1759.
To my eye the best of his busts of Charles I.
Perhaps one of the two busts in the posthumous Roubiliac sale - lot 79 on second day's sale, 13 May 1762, or lot 74 on third day's sale, 14 May 1762.
see my post.
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2020/11/bust-of-king-charles-i-by-roubiliac-at.html
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For more on the Roubiliac busts of Charles I see
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2020/11/bust-of-king-charles-i-by-roubiliac-at.html
and several other of my posts.
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Charles Whitworth (1675–1725), 1st Baron Whitworth.
Roubiliac.
Possibly the terracotta at the Roubiliac Sale Lot 80 on the 3rd Day
The drawing is inscribed erroneously as Lord Stafford.
Annotated as Lord Stafford.
But this is not Lord Stafford but a bust of Lord Charles Whitworth.
The marble is in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.
Lot 80 on the third day of the Roubiliac Sale was the terracotta of Lord Whitworth, used as the model for the marble at Trinity College, Cambridge.
On the same day Mathew Maty bought for the British Museum the accompanying busts in terracotta, lot 74, Charles I. Lot 77, Mr Ray. Lot 78, Mr Willoughby. Lot 79. Mr Barrow. and Lot 81, Mr Bentley.
All these busts except the Charles I were models for the marble busts at Trinity College, Cambridge.
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The Marble bust of Lord Whitworth.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
Roubiliac, dated 1757.
Height 65 cms.
Posthumous bust.
The terracotta was sold at the posthumous sale of Roubiliac at his premises in St Martin's Lane.
The only catalogue is that in the Finberg Collection in the British Museum (see the transcription from Esdaile below).
Lot 80, on the third day was the terracotta bust of Lord Whitworth.
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The Harris / Preston Drawing of Oliver Cromwell by Nollekens.
Acquired by the Bodleian Library in 1762.
see Bodleian Day Book 1762. (I haven't seen this - it needs to be confirmed).
Is this the Roubiliac bust of Edward Capell?
See Catalogue of the Roubiliac sale below.
Lord Lister?
This bust is not Lord Lister but Thomas Coke, Ist Earl of Leicester.
There is a copy of this bust by Chantry at Holkham Hall, Norfolk (see below).
The original appears to be missing
https://www.holkham.co.uk/marble-hall-busts/
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The Busts of Lord Leicester at the the Roubiliac Sale.
Day 1.
Lot 87. Bust unfinish'd of Marble.
Day 2.
Lot 21. Plaster Bust
Lot 27. Plaster Bust.
Day 3.
Lot 90. A whole length of the Earl of Leicester in his robes plaster.
Day 4.
Lot. 55. Mould in plaister The Earl of Leicester in modern dress.
Lot 56. Ditto Mould Earl of Leicester in Roman dress.
Lot 57. A small figure ditto.
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The Francis Chantry (1781 - 1841) copy of the Roubiliac bust of Lord Leicester.
with the later style turned socle.
Bust of Lord Leicester.
Early 19th Century Engraving.
The BM say the bust after Chantry after Roubiliac.
but the socle suggests to me that this might be of the original Roubiliac bust.
Image courtesy British Museum.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0822-1429
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The Roubiliac Busts of Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester.
The plaster bust in the Marble Hall at Holkham Hall.
Photograph taken by the author.
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A modern plaster cast of the Chantry copy of the Roubiliac of Lord Leicester is available
as is a cast of the Countess of Leicester (1700 -75) (below)..
https://www.holkhamclassicsculptures.co.uk/sculptures/1st-earl-of-leicester
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The Roubiliac Busts on the Coke Monument at Tittleshall, Norfolk.
The monument was put up by the Countess.
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For the monument at Tittleshall, Norfolk by Charles Atkinson fl. 1750 - 70, with busts by Roubiliac of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1759) and the Countess.
Roubiliac uses the same form of drapery on this bust as his busts of Charles I and the Fordham Marble bust of Shakespeare now in the Folger Library Washington DC. USA.
see the paragraphs on the Ligonier bust above.
Atkinson was responsible for carving chimneypieces and other works at Holkham - his yard was in Leadenhall Street, London (London Directory 1768).
Photographs here from -
https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/2021/09/15/sculptured-monuments-2/
_____________________________
The Joseph Nollekens Harris / Preston Drawing of Dr Richard Meade.
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The Busts of Dr Richard Mead at the Roubiliac Sale.
Lot 65. - Second Day - a Plaster Mould.
Lot 11. - Second Day - Plaster.
Lot 8 and Lot 13. - Third day - Plaster.
Lot 10. - Fourth day Plaster..
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The Drawing courtesy - ART UK website -
Richard Mead (1673 - 1754)
Roubiliac.
Marble.
H 68.9 x W 52 x D 24 cms.
Royal College of Physicians.
Photograph by the author.
A Plaster Bust of Dr Richard Mead without a socle is in the British Museum.
Photograph taken in about 1928 showing a slight abrasion to the nose.
Height 61.5 cms.
This image is from the British Museum website.
This bust presented to the British Museum by Dr Matthew Maty, 1762, was purchased by Dr Maty at the Roubiliac sale, either lot 11 in second day's sale, 13 May 1762. or lot 8 or
lot 13 in the third day's sale, 14 May 1762.
See - Aileen Dawson, Portrait Sculpture, a Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, c. 1675-1975. pub. BMP 1999 /
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1762-0528-11
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Dr Mathew Maty. Principal Librarian at the British Museum.
Stipple Engraving.
Bartolozzi.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_S-7-46
British Museum Curator's comments -
Tessa Murdoch (in an email 29 March 2020) kindly points out that in Matthew Maty's will dated 16 July 1776 he instructed his executrix, his wife Mary, to 'employ Bartolozzi or other eminent engraver, to make print from the best drawing or picture done for me - 100 copies and no more'.
Probate granted
17 August 1776, see H. Wagner edited by D. North, 'Huguenot Wills',
"Huguenot Society Quarto Proceedings", 2007, pp. 273-4.
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A list of the Roubiliac portrait busts bought at the posthumous sale by Matthew Maty and donated to the British Museum.
Isaac Barrow clay / terracotta - 3rd Day Lot 79.
Richard Bentley clay / terracotta - 3rd Day Lot 81.
Charles I. Terracotta. Either 2nd Day Lot 79 or 3rd Day Lot 74.
Lord Chesterfield. Plaster (now without socle) 2nd Day Lot 9, 3rd Day Lot 18 or 4th Day Lot 20.
another plaster is at the YCBA.
Oliver Cromwell. Terracotta. 2nd Day Lot 84.
Marton Folkes. Plaster. Lot 10 - 4th Day Lot 10.
Dr Richard Meade. Plaster. Either 2nd Day Lot 11, or 3rd Day Lot 8 or Lot 13.
John Milton. Plaster. 2nd Day Lot 16.
Alexander Pope. Plaster. 1st Day Lot 9, or 2nd Day Lots 3 or 14, or 3rd Day Lot 2.
William Shakespeare. Terracotta. 2nd Day Lot 73 or Lot 83, or 3rd Day Lot 86.
Francis Willoughby, Terracotta. 3rd Day Lot 78.
John Ray. Terracotta. 3rd Day Lot 177.
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Dr Maty also purchased three Classical plaster busts on the 2nd Day of the Sale. Presumed disappeared.
Lot 37 or Lot 50 . Demosthenes, Plaster Bust.
Lot 44. Tully Cicero. Plaster Bust.
Lot 46. Socrates. Plaster Bust
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Transcript of the Sale Catalogue by auctioneers Langfords of The Piazza, Covent Garden of the Contents of the Roubiliac Studio in St Martin's Lane.
From The Life and Works of Louis François Roubiliac by Katharine Esdaile, pub 1928.
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-catalogue-of-posthumous-auction-sale.html
A few notes on the sale catalogue.
Apart from the sale catalogue entries there are no further records of some of the busts mentioned here.
It is to be hoped that some of them still exist and are awaiting discovery.
Day 1.
Lot 13. Mr Wildey. Plaster Bust.
Lot 16. A gentleman. Plaster Bust.
Lot 44. Mrs Nightingale. Mould in plaster.
Described as heads
Lot 77. Lord Shannon. Terracotta Head. Possibly related to the monument at Walton on Thames.
Lot 78. Lady Shannon. Terracotta Head. Ditto (see my post - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2020/08/richard-boyle-viscount-shannon-monument.html
Lot 79. Mrs Lyon. Terracotta Head.
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Day 2.
Lot 7. Dr Bradbury. Plaster Bust.
Lot 12. Mr Carter Statuary. Plaster Bust.
Lot 15, Captain McKenzies son. Plaster Bust.
Lot 17. Mr Floyd. Plaster Bust.
Lot 18. Mr Floyd. Plaster Bust.
Lot 20. Mr Capel Plaster Bust or perhaps a relief. (Edward Capell {1713-81} known from engravings by Bartalozzi and at the BM).
Lot 76. A Gentleman. Terracotta Bust.
Lot 81. A Gentleman Terracotta Bust.
Lot 77. ---- Capel. Terracotta, Bust (known from engravings by Bartalozzi and Anker Smith at the BM).
Lot 85. Mr Nightingale and his Lady, Terracotta Busts.
Day 3.
Lot 19, Councillor Floyd. Plaster Bust.
Day 4.
Lot 4. Britannia - Plaster.
Lot 6. Mr Floyde - Plaster.
Lot 28. Two Plaster busts of Mr Nightingale and his Lady.
Lot 29. Ditto.
The identity of these Nightingales remains to be discovered, perhaps those on Roubiliac's Nightingale monument in Westminster Abbey.
Lot 73. A Lady. Marble bust.
