Portrait Sculpture at Wilton House, No 4. Sir Andrew Fountaine.

Post under construction.

 Portrait Sculpture at Wilton House, No 4. 

I am very grateful to the 18th Earl and Countess of Pembroke for allowing me to visit Wilton House with my camera and giving me free access to the sculptures outside visiting hours.

I am also very grateful to all the staff at Wilton, Charlotte Spender, Sandie Buxcie, and in particular the House Manager Nigel Bailey and all at Wilton who made me feel most welcome.

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Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676 - 1753).

Louis Francois Roubiliac.

1757.

1757.

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A New Description of the Pictures, Statues, Bustos, Basso-relievos, and other curiosities at the Earl of Pembroke's house at Wilton. In the antiques of this collection are contain'd the whole of Cardinal Richelieu's and Cardinal Mazarine's, and the greatest part of the Earl of Arundel's; besides several particular pieces purchas'd at different times.1758. James Kennedy.

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Sir Andrew Fountaine.

Roubiliac.

Terracotta.

H 54.5 x W 49 x D 26.5 cm

Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.

Purchased from Commander Andrew Fountaine in 1992.

Images courtesy Art UK Website -

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-andrew-fountaine-16761753-270588

This is perhaps the bust (the material is not specified) by Roubiliac mentioned in Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen: In England, Wales ..., Volume 2. by John Preston Neale, 1819.

The 1753 inventory of Narford described the marble bust as ‘the highly finished Busto in marble of Sir Andrew Fountaine, done after the life and very like him by Roubiliac.’ This is the bust now in the church at Narford (see images etc below).

 The inventory also recorded Roubiliac’s terracotta bust, the source for the marble versions, which was acquired from the Fountaine collection by Norfolk Museums Service in 1992.

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Sir Andrew Fountaine.

Plaster - 

Overall: 23 3/4 × 19 × 9 3/4 inches (60.3 × 48.3 × 24.8 cm).

Provenance.

The sitter; By family descent; sale, Sotheby's, 12 December 1991 (Lot 252)

Black and White Photographs from the Excellent Paul Mellon Archives.

(if only all archive images were this good!!)

https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/

The same bust with more recent photographs.

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1468

 

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Sir Andrew Fountaine.

Plaster - 

Private Collection - Cambridge.

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Bust of Andrew Fountaine on the Monument at Narford Church, Norfolk.

 

Perhaps a replacement - this needs to be confirmed.

 

The 1753 inventory of Narford described the marble bust as ‘the highly finished Busto in marble of Sir Andrew Fountaine, done after the life and very like him by Roubiliac.’

 

The inventory also recorded Roubiliac’s terracotta bust, the source for the marble versions, which was acquired from the Fountaine collection by Norfolk Museums Service in 1992.

The collection of Sir Andrew remained intact after Fountaine's death in 1753. However, much was sold by Christie's in 1884, in a sale which took place over a period of four days.

The Powley inscription. (below).

The Narford monument is signed by the little known N. Powley of Wells by Sea. Norfolk.

 On 9th July 1757 The Norwich Mercury reported - We hear from Wells that last week was erected in the Parish church of Narford in this county a monument to the memory of Sir Andrew Fountaine consisting of various colour'd marble with a swelling statuary tabled and ornamented with the bust of Sir Andrew, upon the top of a pyramid highly finished is a statuary urn in a chased antique manner. The whole polished and completed to entire satisfaction by John Powley of Wells next the Sea.

 

Harris Powley is noted in an advertisement in the Norwich Mercury 6 April 1776 as a stonemason of Wells next the Sea making marble, Portland stone and freestone chimney pieces, monuments tombs and gravestones.

 

 

At the Church of All Saints, Sculthorpe, Norfolk, on the South West external wall of the church there are two  mural monuments to members of the Matthew family. Both set under a triangular pediments. One is inscribed Powley, which must be Harris the son of John Powley, as the latest date is 1786, and John Powley had died at Wells in 1774. (facts need checking).

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There is a portrait of Andrew Fountaine by William Hoare of Bath at Wilton.

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Andrew Fountaine, Roubiliac and the St Martin's Lane Academy.

A Statue of Venus by Roubiliac.

On November 13th, 1738, the London Daily Post and General Advertiser reported,

'Last week a fine Venus was finished at a Sculptor's in St. Martin's Lane for a Person of Quality; eight of the most celebrated Painters assisted at the Performance and the Lady who sate Nine Hours at different times for the same, had three and a half Crowns each Hour for her complaisance and trouble'.

This shows the personal connection between Roubiliac and Sir Andrew Fountaine.

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Sir Andrew Fountaine.

The Dassier Medallion.

Diameter: 51.3mm.

Struck 1745.

ANDREAS- FOUNTAINE EQ- AURAT

'A.A.A./F.F/ III VIR./ M.DCCXLV./ J.A DASSIER.

This is one of a series of thirteen medals of illustrious Englishmen begun by Dassier in 1740. The dies were engraved in London, but struck abroad, as no sufficiently powerful machinery was available in England.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O311679/sir-andrew-fountaine-medal-dassier-jacques-antoine/

For the rest of the medallions in this series see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/10/jacques-antoine-dassier-16-medallions.html

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Sir Andrew Fountaine (on the left) and Friends in the Tribune.

Giulio Pignatta (1684–1751).

1715.

H 145.5 x W 119 cm.

On loan to Norwich Castle Museum .

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sir-andrew-fountaine-and-friends-in-the-tribune-228912

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The Roubiliac Sale.

First Day Wednesday 12 May 1762 at his dwelling house in St Martin's Lane under the heading Marbles Lot 82. A bust Begun for Sir Andrew Fountaine

The full 4 day catalogue is available in the recently digitalised -

The Life and Works of Louis François Roubiliac by Katharine A. Esdaile, 

London: Oxford University Press, 1928. see -

https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/esdaile1928

A very useful publication to begin the study of Roubiliac although some of the information within should be treated with caution.

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Conversation Piece (Portrait of Sir Andrew Fountaine with Other Men and Women).

William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764).

c. 1730-1735.

Oil on canvas.

 (47.6 x 58.4 cm).

 The John Howard McFadden Collection, 1928.

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Perhaps........

Sir Andrew Fountaine.

by Jonathan Richardson 1665 - 1745.

Fountaine wearing the gilt bronze key of his office as Vice-Chamberlain to Princess Caroline of Ansbach.

Leland Little, Hillsborough North Carolina. Lot 233, Jun 11, 2022.

https://www.lelandlittle.com/items/451595/jonathan-richardson-british-1665-1745-portrait-of-sir-andrew-fountaine?departmentId=21

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Sir Andrew Fountaine.

Jonathan Richardson.

Probably Richard Gipps (died 1743), West Harling Hall, Norfolk. 

Sir Edmund Nugent, Bt. (died 1928), West Harling Hall, Norfolk by 1908 [Duleep Singh 1927 described it as a portrait of Sir Andrew Fountaine attributed to Richardson]; the portrait, which had been extended on all sides and installed within a carved chimneypiece, passed with the house to the Government Forestry Commission [according to a letter dated 5 December 1933 from Frank Surgey to Bessie Bennett in curatorial file, Department of European Decorative Arts]. 

Acton, Surgey, London by 1931 [letter cited above and Connoisseur 1931]; sold with the chimneypiece to the Antiquarian Society for presentation to the Art Institute, 1933 (added strips removed from the painting in 1964/65 conservation treatment).

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The reuse of designs for the drapery on the Roubiliac Busts.

The Roubiliac Bust of Thomas Winnington (d. 1746).

On the Winnington Monument at St Mary's Church, Stanford on Teme, Worcestershire.

With a few notes on the monument and busts of Sir Andrew Fountaine, the monument to John Merick and the monument of John Bamber, The Monument attributed to John Cheere, the bust by Roubiliac.

Winnington's Bust has the same drapery as Roubiliac's busts of Sir Andrew Fountaine, and the bust on the monument to John Bamber at Barking.

Malcolm Baker suggests the monument possibly by Benjamin Palmer.

see Church Monuments Society Journal, vol X, 1995.

Baker also points out the similarities of the feet supporting the sarcophagus to those on the monument to John Merrick in Norwood Church - it should also be pointed out that they are also very close to those on the monument of John Bamber in St Margarets Church, Barking (see photograph below).

A letter of the 22 February 1749/50 in the Lewis Walpole Library that was discovered by Todd Longstaff Gowan, from Henry Fox to Charles Hanbury Williams who had the monument erected.

The letter asks that Hanbury Williams retainer/servant  Richard Evans should:

"write a line to Mr Eckar (John Giles Eccardt - see image below) to deliver your picture of Mr Winnington done by Vanlo to my order. from that and Goussets (Isaac Gossett) Bas Relive of him Rouvilliac is to make a bust which may be plac'd upon a monument something like that set up to the primate Boulter (by Henry Cheere) in Westminster Abbey. You please to write in verse or prose or both shall be there inscribed, and I beg you will intend to do it now whilst You are at Colbrook".

This confirms that Roubiliac sculpted this bust using the portrait and a wax relief by Isaac Gosset.

This wax relief appears to have remained with Roubiliac and was put up for auction (Mr Winnington in Wax) at the posthumous sale of Roubiliac First day, Lot 68.

Although by no means clear this suggests that there was a link between Henry Cheere and Roubiliac as contractor and sub contractor.

Information above from the Roubiliac and Cheere in the 1730's and 40's Collaboration and subcontracting in 18th Century English Sculptors' Workshops by Malcolm Baker in the Church Monuments Society Journal Vol X. 1995.

The Monument to Thomas Winnington.

Stanford on Teme, Worcestershire.

Roubiliac.

The bust was carved using a wax portrait by Isaac Gosset (1713 - 99) provided by the family. 

Its inclusion in the Roubiliac sale of 1762 suggests that it was never returned.

Images above taken by the author 17 September 2024 in very difficult circumstances.

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The Monument to John Bamber (c.1754) again using the drapery found on the busts of Andrew Fountaine and Thomas Winnington.

St Margaret of Antioch Church. Barking, Essex.

The bust by Roubiliac again using the same body and drapery as on the bust of Andrew Fountaine and the bust of Thomas Winnington in the church at Stanford on Teme.

c.1754.

Photographs here by the author.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019_04_05_archive.html

I believe that this monument is probably a collaboration between Henry Cheere and Roubiliac

The monument is perhaps by Cheere typically showing his use of coloured marbles, but the bust has all the hallmarks of the mature Roubiliac and his mastery of depicting older men in a naturalistic fashion.

Another pointer is the lions paw feet supporting the Dove Grey Marble Sarcophagus of both the Bamber and Winnington Monuments. 

These feet also appear on the monument to Monument to John Merick of Norcutt of c 1749. Church of  St Mary the Virgin. Tentelow Lane. Norwood Green, Middlesex. This monument was attributed to Benjamin Palmer by Malcolm Baker in the Church Monument Society Journal vol X 1995.

 The pupils of the eyes on the bust of Bamber are incised perhaps suggesting that the bust was perhaps made earlier and incorporated onto the monument posthumously. It has also been suggested in the past that blank eyes on a portrait bust would indicate that it would have been made posthumously - I am not convinced of this argument - although I think that an earlier family bust might well have been incorporated in a funerary monument.

 Roubiliac  repeats the details of the classical dress found on the busts of Andrew Fountaine and Thomas Winnington, and John Bamber (see images above).

 

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/03/monument-to-thomas-winnington-stanford.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019_04_05_archive.html

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Drawing of the Merick Monument at St Mary the Virgin Church, Norwood by Daniel Lysons.

drawn between 1796 and 1811.

Image courtesy YCBA

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:16987

Included here to show the lions paw feet supporting the sarcophagus as used on the Winnington and Bamber Monuments.

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There was a sequence of major dispersals of chattels from Narford with a ‘spectacle almost without rival’ in June 1884. Many of the 400+ pieces of “useless crockery” in the four-day Christie’s sale were acquired for the nation, displayed today at the British Museum and the V&A. 

A month later dozens of paintings and over 800 prints would be knocked down. One decade on, Rubens’ ‘Return of the Prodigal Son‘ was among more Old Masters sold, followed in 1902 by another four-day sale of almost one thousand folios and manuscripts from Narford’s library.