Tuesday 27 February 2024

Hewetson in Rome. (Part 27) Catherine Viscountess Sudley and the Anonymous Ashmolean Busts.


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).

Marble bust.

Christopher Hewetson carved c.1767 - 9.

The Christies/ Arran Bust.

Christie's, London 4th December 2019, Lot 260.


Formerly Coll. Earl of Arran - Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain... Yale 2009.


 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. 

 By descent from the sitter to the 6th Earl of Arran (1868-1958).

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.

















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The Following photographs are taken from the online Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.

This is a fantastic resource which has only recently appeared on line.


























The following from Travellers in Italy  Ingamells.pub Yale 1995.

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).





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The Ashmolean Bust.

One of a pair.

































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The Ashmolean bust are currently labelled Lord Fermor by Guelphi.



It is remotely possible that these busts represent. Other Hickman Windsor, Lord Plymouth. and his wife Sarah nee Archer.


The Marble Busts.

If this bust is of Lord Plymouth then it is an idealised bust by the 1790's Plymouth was ill, probably clinically obese and losing his eyesight. Hewetson certainly carved other idealised or posthumous busts such as Count Potocki.- see my blog post - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/02/hewtson-in-rome-part-20-franciszek.html

















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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


 
This pair of busts have in the past been attributed to Guelphi - but the quality of these busts is so good that they could not possibly have been by him. 

The main reason for this attribution (by Nicholas Penny in Ashmolean (III) 1992, p. 96 Cat Nos 516 and 517) would appear to be the fact that Guelphi had been employed at the Fermor family country seat at Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, restoring - some would say butchering the ancient Arundel Marbles.

Malcolm Baker has since suggested in 1994 that they were made by a later sculptor such as Joseph Wilton, (Baker.1994).


For the known bust by Guelphi see my post -


Whilst I cannot pretend to be an expert, the style of the clothing and the hair would appear to be later than the 1720/30's and most likely 1760/70's.


Given that  busts of Lord and Lady Plymouth, finished and paid for, were still in the studio of Hewetson when he died and that they have remained untraced it seemed possible, that if it is accepted that the Ashmolean busts are by Christopher Hewetson then they might be identified as the Ashmolean busts.

But I continue to have doubts about this hypothesis.


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. /


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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/


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A Portrait Miniature of Sarah, Lady Plymouth.

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. /





If indeed this is Sarah Lady Plymouth it must be a very early miniature.

I have my doubts.






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Other Hickman Windsor (1751 - 99).

Finished Busts of Lord and Lady Plymouth are recorded on an inventory taken of the contents of the studio by Albacino and Pacetti after the death of Hewetson in 1799. see -


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.



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Lord Plymouth married Sarah Archer (1762 -1838) daughter of Andrew Archer, 2nd Baron Archer in 1788.

If this bust is Lady Plymouth and was carved from life in the 1790's she would have been aged about 32.

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. 



Other Hickman Windsor (1751 - 99)

married Sarah Archer (1762 -38) daughter of Andrew Archer, 2nd Baron Archer in 1788.

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.




The next section is lifted almost in its entirety from A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701 to 1800..... Edited byJohn Ingamells pub Yale 1995 .....

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 perhaps he may be surprised to see her Ladyship's shape so enlarged', (18)

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.



Hewetson in Rome (Part 26). The English Prize.

 

Hewetson in Rome (Part 26). 

The busts from the captured ship the Westmoreland.

The English Prize.


Francis Basset, Baron Dunstanville (1757 - 1835).

Christopher Hewetson.

Terracotta.

Museo de la Real Academia Bellas Artes San Fernando, Madrid.

Taken from the Captured English Ship The Westmorland.


















For the restoration report in Spanish see -





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A Plaster bust of Francis Basset, Baron Dunstanville.

Christopher Hewetson.



Museo de la Real Academia Bellas Artes San Fernando, Madrid.

A Second Bust from the captured English ship The Westmorland.









For the Museum Restoration Report in Spanish see -









Note the treatment of the pupils as in the Ashmolean busts.




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Sir John Henderson, 5th Baronet of Fordell.

Terracotta.

Museo de la Real Academia Bellas Artes San Fernando, Madrid.

From the Captured English Ship The Westmorland.

















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Sir John Henderson, 1782.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

Drawing. 

John Brown.




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