The two busts posted here for comparison.
18th Century English and Irish portrait sculpture is a much neglected with a few exceptions and unfashionable subject - part of the purpose of this blog is an attempt to correct that state of affairs and to inspire some enthusiasm for the subject.
When are we going to see the works of Nollekens, Wilton, Bacon and Hewetson celebrated.
It seems incredible to me that the wonderful pair of busts in the Ashmolean have remained in plain sight but unconsidered for so long, with an attribution to a third rate 18th century Italian sculptor.
Catherine, Viscountess Sudely (1739 - 1770).
Catherine, Viscountess Sudley (1739-1770).
Christopher Hewetson. (1737-1799).
Carved in Rome, Circa 1767-9.
Marble bust; signed to the reverse 'Christophus Hewetson. fect -
CATHERINE VISCOUNTESS SUDLEY -';
on a circular marble socle and a later square marble pedestal.
24 ¼ in. (62 cm.) high, overall (this needs to be confirmed).
Provenance.
Christie's, London, 11 December 1984, lot 19, where acquired by the present owner.
Its current whereabouts are unknown.
Literature. -
B. De Breffny, ‘Christopher Hewetson, a Preliminary Catalogue Raisonné’, Irish Arts Review, vol. 111, 1986, pp. 52-75, no. 26.
I. Roscoe, et. al., A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, London, 2009, p. 610, no. 7.
Christie's Lot Essay.
The sitter, Catherine Annesley, daughter of William, 1st Viscount Glerawly, married Arthur Gore, Viscount Sudley, in 1760.
The couple embarked on a Grand Tour in Italy together from 1767, and Horace Walpole noted that Gore had been invited to dinner by Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor in Florence that year.
By 1769 the couple had reached Rome, where they commissioned Pompeo Batoni to paint their joint portrait (Christie's, London, 5 July 2018, lot 55).
The portrait bust by Hewetson must have been executed between 1767 and 1769, and is therefore Hewetson's earliest known work in Italy.
1767—70 Florence (by 10 Jan. 1767—), Naples (by Nov. 1768—),
Rome (1769), Florence (Oct.—
Nov, 1769), Pisa (winter 1769—70), Florence (by 20Mar.1770)
[Dublin by Nov.]
Lord Sudley had arrived in Florence by 10 Jan- uary 1767,
and on the 24th he had been presented to the Grand Duke.l
He is next recorded at Naples on 15 November 1768.2 He was
travelling with his first wife, very probably for the sake of her health, and
she was to be remembered in Naples for her 'humanity, generosity, and every
virtue'. (3). They were in Florence in October and November 1769, and after
passing the winter at Pisa were briefly back in Florence in March 1770.
Lady Sudley was a favourite with the Grand Duchess in Florence,
wrote Horace Mann, 'though she left off when she pleased, and even refused the royal
invitation when engaged to another party'. (4).
She sat to Hewetson for an undated marble bust (prive coll.)
and, with her husband, to Batoni for a portrait dated 1769 (Clark/Bowron 335; priv. coll.). Lady Sudley died
in Dublin, soon after their return, on 23 November 1770 ( CP).
l. Gazz. Tosc. Wal. Corr„ 22•.42.
2. SP 93/24 (Hamilton, 15
Nov. 1768).
3. Miller, Letters, 2:132—3.4. Wal. Corr., 23:149, 203.
Eg.2641, f.62 (Mann, 20 Mar. 1770).
The Pair of Anonymous Marble Busts of (probably not) Thomas Fermor, 2nd Lord Lempster, Earl of Pomfret, and his Wife Henrietta Louisa, at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Still labelled attributed to Guelphi.
Here tentatively suggested as by Christopher Hewetson (sometimes Houston, Huston).
This pair of very fine busts have always bothered me since the time I first saw them many years ago - they are obviously not by the execrable Guephi (Guelfi) (1690 - 1736) but the subjects and the sculptor have remained elusive to me.
I don't believe that these busts represent the Fermors.
I shouldn't be too unkind to poor Guelphi - he executed a couple of fine terracottas but working in marble was not his forte. He had a particular problem with executing necks.
He was described by a critic in Michaelis as a "shallow botcher".
For his description of the Arundel Marbles see -
https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9783897440159_A27470957/preview-9783897440159_A27470957.pdf
The fifth Earl of Plymouth and his wife Sarah Hickman Windsor, nee Archer, Countess of Plymouth, were friends of William Pitt Amherst while he was in Rome.
After the Earl's death, the sitter married Amherst and became Lady Amherst in 1800. There is a portrait of her painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), which is now in the Amherst College Collection at the Mead Art Gallery. This portrait miniature, as well as those of Elizabeth Carey Amherst, Elizabeth Frances Hale and William Pitt Amherst, are all part of a large collection of family portraits acquired from a descendant of the Hale family.
The fifth Earl of Plymouth and his wife Sarah Hickman Windsor, nee Archer, Countess of Plymouth, were friends of William Pitt Amherst while he was in Rome.
After the Earl's death, the sitter married Amherst and became Lady Amherst in 1800. There is a portrait of her painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), which is now in the Amherst College Collection at the Mead Art Gallery. This portrait miniature, as well as those of Elizabeth Carey Amherst, Elizabeth Frances Hale and William Pitt Amherst, are all part of a large collection of family portraits acquired from a descendant of the Hale family. /
............................
Portrait of Sarah Lady Plymouth nee Archer (1762 - 1838).
Her first husband Lord Plymouth died in 1799 and she remarried to William Pitt Amherst 24 July 1800 she then became the Countess of Amherst.
Sir Thomas Lawrence.
1804.
She would have been aged 42 when this portrait was painted.
Image courtesy -
https://meadmusings.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/monday-morning-muse-sarah-hickman-amherst/
.....................
After the Earl's death, the sitter married Amherst and became Lady Amherst in 1800. There is a portrait of her painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), which is now in the Amherst College Collection at the Mead Art Gallery. This portrait miniature, as well as those of Elizabeth Carey Amherst, Elizabeth Frances Hale and William Pitt Amherst, are all part of a large collection of family portraits acquired from a descendant of the Hale family. /
The studio contents list was compiled from -
Christopher Hewetson: Nuovi Documenti, Nuove Interprezioni. by Paolo Coen, 2012, in "Bollettino d'arte"
Will and Inventory of Christopher Hewetson (c1737–1798): Introduction - Ana María Suárez Huerta.The British Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Winter 2014/15), pp. 3-17.
-----------------------
The fifth Earl of Plymouth and his wife Sarah Hickman Windsor, Countess of Plymouth, were friends of William Pitt Amherst while he was in Rome.
After the Earl's death, the sitter married Amherst and became Lady Amherst in 1800.
Styled Lord Windsor from birth, he was the eldest son of
Other Windsor, 4th Earl of Plymouth and the Honourable Catherine, daughter of
Thomas Archer, 1st Baron Archer. [1] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society on 22 April 1773. He was Colonel of the Glamorganshire Militia, 6
August 1779.
Lord Plymouth, succinctly described by Patrick Home as 'A
fine Fat round English Lord. Loves Eat', made a brief tour of Italy in 1772,
immediately after his succession as 5th Earl, with his governor Dillon, 'a
Swiss — Well bred' (again according to Home).(l).
He was in Florence in January and February, 'the most sweet
tempered fat body I ever knew', said Horace Mann; 'his indolence already makes him
prefer a bed and an elbow chair to all other amusements'.(2).
In Rome he sat to Batoni (Clark/Bowron 348; private collection), the
portrait being seen in Batoni's studio on 30 April, (1).
Johann Zoffany whilst in Florence included him in his painting the Tribuna at the Ufizzi (now in Windsor Castle). (Plymouth is third from the left.
Plymouth was seen in Naples in the summer and again in Florence by 13 June.(3)
He arrived in Venice
with 'Giuseppe Dilon' on 16 September,4 and was back in London to take his seat
in the Lords by February.
Lord Plymouth married his first cousin the Honourable Sarah,
daughter of Andrew Archer, 2nd Baron Archer, on 20 May 1778.
He returned to Italy in 1791 with his wife, Sarah, and two
children, Lord Windsor later 6th Earl (1789 – 1833) and Lady Maria (1790
– 1855).
They appear to have stayed for five years, principally in Rome and Naples.
Lord Plymouth was not in good health.
They arrived in Rome in November 1791,6 and were in Naples
by February 1792, when Lady Plymouth was one of the English ladies with whom
Prince Augustus was consorting? (the others being Lady Malmesbury and Mrs
Heneage Legge).(7)
In January 1793 Lady
Palmerston described Lady Plymouth as good humoured, unaffected and pleasant
(8.)
The more remarkable as her husband's health and sight were
both declining. She gave a ball at Naples 9 March 1793 (9) and on the 16th
of April she received a slim volume, Figure Originale, from Carlo Labruzzi
(coll.Brinsley Ford).
According to Lady Webster (who was a close friend) Lord
Berwick had become very attached to Lady Plymouth by May 1793, but early in
1794 he was treating her with disrespect. (10)
In January 1794 in
the course of a smallpox epidemic in Naples, 'to which 7,000 infants have
fallen victims', one of Plymouths' infant boys died. (11)
Lady Plymouth was back in Rome by March 1794, when Angelica
Kauffman painted the two children. (12)
On 6 July 1794 it was
reported from Rome that though Lady Plymouth had lost a son, she was in a fair
way of replacing him soon; her husband however, was 'in a very bad way, for he
is very near blind, and his legs are so swelled that it is thought he is going
into a dropsy'. (13)
Lady Plymouth held a ball for Prince Augustus in Rome in
February 1795, at which the assembly (and in particular Robert Fagan) did not
measure up to Lady Knight's proper expectations. (14)
During the summer they were at Bologna where, Lady Knight
recorded.
Lady Plymouth next attracted marked attention from William Pitt Amherst; 'Mr Amherst does all the leading honours to the lady, but I hear, fears his honoured uncle [whose title he would inherit] should know it'. (15)
They were again in Rome in August 1795 with Colonel Dillon,
Amherst and the Prince as the 'only English society'. (16)
By December they but had moved to Naples, where it was reported that Lord Plymouth was 'almost blind and but small hopes are entertained of his eye-sight being restored; the conjugal attachment and attention of his amiable lady is the subject of general conversation'. (17)
Then Amherst 'was
still at Anchor at Plymouth' and, she continued, 'if Ld P's eyes begin to open
Reading between the lines here suggests to me that Lord
Plymouth might not have been the father of their second daughter.
Shortly afterwards the Plymouths returned to England,
passing through Padua on 30 March en route for Venice. (19).
Their second daughter Harriet (1797 - 1867) was christened in London in September 1797. Lord Plymouth died aged 48 on 12 June 1799, and Lady Plymouth married Amherst on 24 July 1800.
Footnotes.
l. Home Journal, Mss.
2. Walpole Corr., 23-378 (4 Feb. 1772).
3. Gazz. Tosc Cotes Journal. Mss.
4. ASV is 759.
5. Winchilsea letters MSS. (16 Feb. 1773).
6. Add.39780, f.55 (Mrs Flaxman, 21 Nov. 1791).
7. Fothergill 1969, p.259.
8. Connell 1957, 275.
9. Parker JournaI. MSS.
10, Holland Journal 1:29, 123.
11. Ibid., 113.
12. Kauffman, 1924, 166, 177.
13. The Oracle, 21 Jul. 1794.
14. Knight Letters, 206—7,
15. Knight Letters, 211 (26 Dec. 1795).
16. Attingham MSS (Ldy. Plymouth, 30 Aug. 1795).
17. Morning Chronicle, 10 Jan. 1796 (Naples, 5 Dec. 1795).
18. Attingham MSS (23 Feb, 1796).
19. ASV is 783.
