Bath, Art and Architecture: 02/05/24

Monday 5 February 2024

Thomas Gifford - Hewetson in Rome (Part 10)

Post under construction.

Hewetson in Rome (part 10).

Thomas Gifford 1764 - 1823

of Chillington Hall, Staffordshire.

now National Trust

The Marble Bust.

66cms.

Christopher Hewetson.

It is inscribed 1784 but I suspect the inscription might be later.

A bust of Gifford was still in the studio of Hewetson when he died in 1798.

This confusing if it is the same bust, but might suggest a certain delay in payment to Hewetson by Giffard.

Thomas Gifford travelled on his Grand Tour with his tutor Charles Berrington to France Italy and Germany in 1784.

In March 1784 they were in Rome in a party with John Parkinson, Jonas Brooke, Sir James Graham and Thomas Brand being instructed by James Byres

Brand described them as "English Catholics and of course Bigots" Berington was his Tutor chaplain priest and even a Doctor of the Sorbonne & of course learned in Baptismal and obstetrical ceremonies He is a very plain, sensible and good sort of man &and would be very well if the boy were not such a bigot" (Brand Letters MSS 26 March 1784)

He sat to Pompeo Batoni (see below) and Christopher Hewetson - He was in Milan by June 1784 and had reached Lyon by 14 July.

Images here from the Mellon Photographic Archive.

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Some Excellent recent images of the Bust of Thomas Gifford at Chillington.

It has sustained some damage particularly to the tip of the nose but these faults could be easily rectified by a competent restorer, without compromising the sculpture.

A gentle wash and the touching in of the nose would vastly improve the look of it - any temptation to repolish should be avoided at all costs. I would replace the missing ears of the socle.

I am very grateful to Claire Dolman at Chillington Hall for providing me with these images.

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His daughter Maria Catherine Giffard (d. 1821) was married in 1792 to Sir John Throckmorton (below) who also sat to Hewetson - the bust is at Coughton, Warks - Nat Trust.

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Thomas Gifford. (possibly??).

Supposedly by George Chinnery (1774 - 1832) probably not.

120 x 100 mm.

Image National Trust website.

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Thomas Giffard.

Pompeo Baton.

1784.

I am awaiting a better image.

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Thomas Peter Giffard (1735 - 76), the father of Thomas Gifford.

1768

by Pompeo Batoni.

Hewetson in Rome (Part 9). Two unidentified men.

Christopher Hewetson in Rome (Part 9).

An Unidentified man.

Christopher Hewetson.

Inscribed CH Fet.

Marble bust.

Sold Sotheby's 5 December 1995

Some Photographs from the excellent Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive.

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/search/*?filter=collections%3ASculpture%20Collections&_gl=1*1ofxyyg*_ga*NzkwNTAwOTQ1LjE3MDYwMDU4NTQ.*_ga_HRCYELKZDT*MTcwNjg4MjMyOC4zLjEuMTcwNjg4MjM0OS4zOS4wLjA.#filters

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Called Welbore Ellis (1713 - 1802).?????

Bishop of Meath (1651 - 1734).

Note the Eyes and socle as the pair of Ashmolean Museum Busts.

I believe the attribution to Hewetson is correct but unless this is a posthumous bust I think it has been mis identified.

There are two possible candidates -

Both by Prosperi (but are perhaps the unfinished busts by Hewetson)

Rev. T Watkins. Bust. 1814. Exhib. RA, London, 775. Untraced.

Rev. R Harington. Bust. 1814. Exhib. RA, London, 776. Untraced. (a bust of Harrington? noted in the Studio after he died.

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Anonymous Bust.

Currently No further information available.

The Swinburnes - Hewetson in Rome (part 8).

(Post under construction).

Christopher Hewetson and the Swinburnes in Rome.

The Mural Monument to Martha Swinburne.

At the Venerable English College in Rome

The following black and white images from -

https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/1200230124

On 8 September 1778 Martha Swinburne died in Rome, aged ten, and Christopher Hewetson was commissioned to sculpt a monument to her memory. The long inscription, ‘penned by her disconsolate father’ Henry, offended the Jesuit Robert Thorpe because it made no mention of religion but was concerned only with her accomplishments in history, music, languages and geography which Swinburne, ‘indulging an innocent pride’, had felt compelled to record. At any rate, the tablet was mounted in the chapel of the Venerable English College, Rome, where it remains.

For the Swinburne's visit to Rome see -

https://diocesehn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Northern-Catholic-History-No52-2011.pdf

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The Bronze Busts of Henry and Martha Swinburne at Lotherton Hall, Leeds.

Almost certainly cast by Luigi Valadier sometimes Valladier. (1726 - 85).

Valadier working in Rome from 1760

He had a large workshop employing numerous craftsmen close to the Piazza di Spagna.

Committed suicide - drowning in the Tiber,

Henry Swinburne (1743 - 1803).

66 cms.

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Martha Swinburne.

Bronze

62 Cms

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/objects/401099/martha-baker-mrs-henry-swinburne?ctx=c3fd8f88bcb7c73a0c737a9529e13ea1960779d2&idx=7

Images above from the Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.

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Image above from

https://www.meisterdrucke.ie/fine-art-prints/Christopher-Hewetson/966559/Bust-of-Mrs-Martha-Swinburne.html

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Bronze Bust of Martha Swinburne nee Baker.

Inscribed Valadier.

Art Institute of Chicago.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/17165/bust-of-martha-baker-swinburne

Giovanni Pichler - Hewetson in Rome (Part 7).

Hewetson in Rome.

Giovanni Pichler (Johan Anton Pikler). (1697 - 1779)

Gem Engraver

Marble bust by Christopher Hewetson.

Originally placed in the Pantheon

Primopteca Capitalino, Rome.

Palazzo Senatorio.

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Teresa Pichler and the bust of her father.

Portrait in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence

The painting was purchased by Cesare Monti of Rome in 1915 for 500 lire, the portrait depicts Teresa Pichler, or Pikler (1767-1834) daughter of the famous gem cutter, Giovanni, depicted in the marble bust next to the effigy. The bust of Pichler (Naples 1734-Rome 1791) was created by the sculptor Christopher Hewetson in 1791. Teresa married the poet Vincenzo Monti in 1791. (SP)

https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900648941

Azara by Hewetson - Hewetson in Rome (Part 6)

(Post under construction).

José Nicolás de Azara (1703-1804), Marquis of Nibbiano.

Bronze bust.

on a turned coloured marble socle.

Spanish Diplomat.

The Busts of Azara by Christopher Hewetson.

see - https://museum-essays.getty.edu/paintings/dbardeen-mengs/

The Prado Bronze Bust.

1779.

Inscribed - JOS. IAS. AZARA / Non ultra fas trepidat / MDCCLXXIX .

The inscription on the bust refers to some verses that the Latin poet Horace dedicated to Maecenas (Ode III, 29) and which, translated as "No more distressed than he should" ?

The bronze busts of Azara and Mengs seem to have been made to be paired and should I believe be considered together

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Bust of Azara.

Bronze.

Height 66 cms

Inscribed F. RIGHETTI F.ROMAE 1792.

After Christopher Hewetson.

Cast in Rome.

Sold Sotheby's Paris.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/important-mobilier-sculptures-et-objets-pf1101/lot.164.html

The portrait of the diplomat was made in marble in 1781 to match the effigy of his painter friend, both preserved at the Promoteca Capitolina in Rome. A pair of the two bronze men is in the Mazarine Library in Paris (see op. cit ). A third bronze portrait of Azara, identical to ours, was recently acquired by the Colegio de San Gregorio national museum in Valladolid. The counterpart of our bronze, the portrait of Mengs also cast in 1792 by Righetti, is kept in Williamstown, at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (cf. Gazette des Beaux Arts , 1999, p. 58, fig. 218).

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https://www.museodelprado.es/en/whats-on/exhibition/mengs-and-azara-portrait-of-a-friendship/0463f8e4-846d-4dbd-a074-ead990ecc96d?rdf

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