Mary Seacole by Henry Weekes at the Getty Museum.
1859.
A piece of sculpture that should be much better known.
See http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1522
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
Mary Seacole by Henry Weekes
A piece of sculpture that should be much better known.
See http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1522
Friday, 31 January 2014
A Plaster bust of Hayman by Roubiliac at Yale.
A Plaster bust of Francis Hayman.
A Plaster bust believed to be Francis Hayman
by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
At the Yale Centre for British Arts
A Self Portrait of Francis Hayman
with London Dealer Philip Mould, formerly with Christie's sold 13 April 2011
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Another self portrait by Francis Hayman. Royal Albert Museum Exeter, Devon
Hayman reunited with his wife by "art sleuth" TV personality and dealer Philip Mould.
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Portrait of Francis Hayman by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Royal Albert Museum, Exeter.
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Francis Hayman, self portrait. Circa 1734.
Royal Albert Museum Exeter.
Self Portrait of Francis Hayman with a group of Gentlemen. Circa 1740 - 45
44 x 56 inches (111.8 x 142.2 cm)
Portrait of the sculptor Peter Scheemakers.
By Francis Hayman. Royal College of Surgeons.
More Eighteenth Century Lead Busts.
Some More Eighteenth Century Lead Busts.
As discussed in my previous post surviving Eighteenth Century lead busts are very rare.
I will attempt to collect information on the whereabouts of surviving lead busts in this blog. Current thinking is that most of them were manufactured at the Hyde Park Corner, Stone Bridge Portugal Row, workshop of John Cheere who took over the yard of 'Anthony Noast' in 1737. This area was a centre for eighteenth century sculpture workshops. Others working here included Thomas Carter I, William Collins, Richard Dickinson and Thomas Manning. and formerly Andrew Carpenter (Andreas Carpentier) who had ceased trading in 1736.
Info - Bio. Dictionary Sculptors in Britain Roscoe et al. Yale 2009.
A mid 18th Century lead bust of Palladio after Rysbrack.
A mid 18th century lead bust of Inigo Jones after Rysbrack.
Offered for sale at The Collection of Professor Sir Albert Richardson, P.R.A. (1880-1964) - the celebrated collector, architect and President of the Royal Academy (1954-1956) - will be auctioned over two days in London on 18 and 19 September 2013.
Christie's described them as "a pair of magnificent lifesize lead busts of Andrea Palladio – the most recognised of all classical architects - and Inigo Jones – the first classical architect in Britain – after Michael Rysbrack, probably cast by John Cheere, circa 1740 (estimate: £400,000-600,000, - unsold).
They are associated with the marble busts by Rysbrack commissioned by Lord Burlington and today at Chatsworth. Rysbrack did not cast his own works but he is understood to have worked closely with those who did; in the case of the present lot the exceptional quality points to Cheere who dominated this market at the time".
The Chatsworth Marble Bust of Inigo Jones.
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Low resolution image of the Chatsworth bust of Palladio
These busts of of Inigo Jones and Palladio were commissioned as a pair
by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington.
The catalogue of Rysbrack's sale on 24th January 1766 listed a pair of these busts as 'the original models for the figures of Lord Burlington at Chiswick.' Terracottas?
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A lead bust of Seneca currently for sale (January 2014).
at Hawker Antiques part of Jamb, Pimlico Road, London.
Height 29.53 in. (75 cm). The serpentine socle is a Victorian replacement.
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A lead bust of the odious William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland of Colludon fame, at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In 1746 Cheere sent an equestrian statue of the Duke of Cunberland to Dublin.
The Duke of Cumberland
by Michael Rysbrack
Marble, Height 62 cms.
Koninklijke Musee, Brussels, Belgium.
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A life size lead Faun sold at the Mike Roberts Sale at Christies, South Kensington, London
23 May 2007, base not original.
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A Lead Bust of Alexander Pope (Roubiliac type).
Sold Christies 10th December 1996.
Later marble socle.
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The Lead bust of Isaac Newton at Yale - 27.9 x 17.8x 8.3 cms.
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Lead bust of John Locke at Yale.
attrib. to Van Nost.
29" x 22.5".
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Lead Statuette of Alexander Pope probably John Cheere at the V&A.
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Thursday, 30 January 2014
The Neate Children - Portrait by Joshua Reynolds in the Metropolitan Museum
Thomas and Charlotte Neate with their Tutor Thomas Needham by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Signed and dated Joshua Reynolds pinxit 1748.
Currently on Display in the Metropolitan Museum New York.
For more on the subjects of this portrait see the entry for the Seward bust of Alexander Pope in this blog.
A Transcription from the Walpole Society Journal 6 (1917 -18) - "Two Early works of Sir Joshua Reynolds .pp105.
This
seems to have been the first composition of several figures which
Reynolds attempted. Its success must have spurred him on to attempt a
similar feat on a larger scale. The group of ' Thomas and Martha
Neate with their Tutor', which is here published for the first time
(Plate XLIII), is probably the first group approaching life-size
which Reynolds painted. The canvas measures 66 x 71 in., and is
signed and dated, ' JA REYNOLDS PINXIT 1748.'
The
group is placed in a landscape, the two children, Thomas Neate and
his sister, being raised on a stone step similar to that employed in
the Eliot Family group. Martha Neate stands upright in the centre,
holding a basket of flowers in her left hand, her right holding a
pink scarf which falls over her arm. She has dropped some of the
flowers out of her basket, some lying at her feet, and some caught in
the folds of her white satin dress. There is a bright blue ribbon
tied round her waist. A small lace cap covers the back of her curly
auburn hair. She seems to be about five or six years of age, and she
looks straight at the spectator with that arch look of suppressed
merriment which we find in the 'Miss Bowies', now in the Wallace
Collection, and in so many of Reynolds's delightful portraits of
children. Her brother, a lad some two years older, kneels on her
right picking up the flowers she has dropped. His expression is
graver than that of his sister, but his thoughtful face is as
charming, as truthful and convincing, as any boy's portrait painted
by Reynolds in after-life. The boy's rather elaborate blue Van Dyck
costume is trimmed with ermine. A yellow (or light brown) scarf is
tied round his waist. His grey felt hat trimmed with blue lies on the
ground beside him. He kneels on his right knee, his left hand holding
some of the flowers he has just picked up.
In
front of the two children is placed a lamb round whose neck the
straight lines of the stone step and connecting the two they have
hung flowers and a blue ribbon. The lamb's figure is the weakest
point in the picture ; it is badly observed and wooden, but it forms
an important link in the design, breaking children with the tall
figure of their tutor. The tutor stands in the right of the picture,
his left leg raised on the step, his right placed on the grass. His
body faces towards the children, but his head looks over his left
shoulder at the spectator. He is a young, clean- shaven man, wearing
his own hair. He is dressed in dark brown, the only touch of positive
colour in his costume being the corner of his blue satin waist - coat
which peeps out from under his coat. He holds a book in his left
hand, his right
being placed on his breast. The horizon is low down in the picture,
so that most of the tutor's figure is relieved against the sky. The
left half of the background is filled with a dark brown pillar and
dark red curtain, the straight line of the pillar which falls
just behind the head of the girl being broken by the freely painted
branches and foliage of a tree.
The
general colour effect of the picture is higher in key and brighter
and fresher than in Reynolds's later works. There is also less
contrast between the lights and shadows. The flesh, both in the faces
and hands, is delightfully fresh in colour, the warm shadows being
mostly put in with burnt sienna, with Venetian red for the accents,
reinforced, in the girl's head, with Vandyck brown.
The
handling of the paint is vigorous and free, loose and fluid in the
back - ground and in the tutor's figure and face, and more solidly
built up in the chief lights which fall on the boy and girl. The
lovely carnations of the young girl's face and neck, and her vivid
white dress set off by the bright colours of the flowers and ribbons,
are skilfully connected with the highest lights in the sky.
The
gay rich colours prove the original bent of Reynolds's genius. He was
born colorist, before the example of the Bolognese painters and their
theories about ' historical colouring ' led him to paint for many
years almost in mono - chrome,
and to regard positive colour as one of the deadly artistic sins. It
was only towards the end of his career that his natural love of
colour asserted itself again, but he could never recapture the
freshness and careless gaiety of colour of his youthful work.
Of
the artist's relations with the Neate family and the conditions under
which the picture was painted we know almost nothing. There is a
tradition in the Neate family that the father of the two children was
a friend of the young artist, and a diary once in the possession of
Miss Eleanor Neate recorded a payment to Reynolds for a portrait, but
the sum mentioned was thought too small to apply to this portrait
group. An old label on the back of the picture gives us a little help
it says :
'
Boy the paternal grandfather of the Rev. A. Neate. Girl
sister of the above married - - Williams of ...., Esq. re Tall
figure Needham tutor of the Boy. Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds'.
Portrait of Joseph Vandewall, only child of Samuel Vandewall and his wife Martha by Joshua Reynolds. Born on 26 July 1745 at Brabant Court, Philpot Lane, City of London. He died on 28 February 1748, The
painting
was sold by Christie's London, 1 December 2000, lot 31.
Provenance
- by
descent to Commander C.E. Neate; Sotheby's London, 3 July 1956, lot
31, (1,350 gns. to Agnews). It was sold by Agnews to Vice-Admiral
B.C.B. Brooke, 1957. It was acquired through Agnews by Sir Michael
Sobell, 1959.
Note. I would dearly like to find the diary of Eleanor Neate (mentioned above) if it still exists. The payment to Reynold is for the portrait of Joseph Vandewall - son of Sam. Vandewall and his wife Martha the former wife of Harris Neate - father of Thomas and Charlotte. This diary could shed much light on the lifestyle and purchases of Samuel Vandewall and his family.
See more on the Vandewall / Neate families in the previous entry on the Seward bust of Pope and in the following biography of the Vandewall / Neate Families.
The
picture is mentioned in Cotton's list of Reynolds's works (p. 55), as
Thomas Neate and his Sister. Children of Mr Neate, of Binfield,
Berks, with their tutor '. Graves and Cronin copy this entry,
altering the name, evidently in error, to ' Neete '. They say that it
belonged in 1857 to the Rev. A. Neate, and add that ' a portrait of
the Neete (Neate) family by Reynolds was offered to the National
Portrait Gallery, 17 Jan. 1870, by Miss Mary Neete (Neate) of
Bampton, Farringdon '. It passed by inheritance to Commander Charles
B. Neate, R.N., who died in 1916, and we have to thank his son,
Captain Arthur C. Burnaby Neate, R.F.A., for his kindness in
permitting us to photograph and publish this interesting example of
Reynolds's work.
The
two children represented in the portrait are Thomas Neate and his sister
Martha, who became afterwards Mrs. Williams. The earliest mention of
Thomas Neate we can find in the ordinary books of reference is the statement, in Burke's Landed Gentry, that his daughter Amelia married
Allen Edward Young, Esq., of Orlingbury, Co. Northampton, in 1804. He
is mentioned in Lyson's Magna Britannia (vol. i, p. 241) as living in
Pope's House, Binfield, Co. Berks, in
1806, but it is not stated how long he had been established there.
Pope resided at Binfield till he purchased the villa at Twickenham in
1719, so the Neates may have been living there in 1748, when Reynolds
painted the two children, but we have found no evidence bearing on
the point. In 1807 Thomas Neate's wife died (Gentleman s Magazine,
1807, p. 789). He himself died in March 1825, aged 84 (Gentleman's
Magazine, 1825), so he was born in 1741, and was seven years old when
Reynolds painted his portrait. His will is preserved at Somerset
House. It was made on November 2, 1814. In it he mentions his sister,
Mrs. Martha Williams, so she too lived to a good old age, and a '
Miss Mary Williams of Monmouth '. Other names mentioned are his son,
the Rev. Thomas Neate and his wife Catherine, his two unmarried
daughters, Charlotte and Martha (Charlotte became the wife of Mr.
John Hodgson by the time the will was proved), and his married
daughter, Amelia, wife of Mr. Young of Orlingbury. He seems to have
been in easy circumstances, for besides the house and land he left a
sum of £7000, shares in a lead company, gold and silver cups and
plate, a chariot and horses, saddle horses, &c.
One
would naturally like to know more about the bewitching young girl who
became in after life Mrs. Martha Williams, but we have not been able
to discover any further information.
End of the article from the Walpole Soc. Journal. (1917 -18).
Detail of the Neate children in 1748 by Joshua Reynolds in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Portrait of Mrs Vandewall by George Knapton (is this the same Spaniel as in the portrait of Joseph Moore Vandewall pictured above?)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A history of this family will follow shortly.
Monday, 27 January 2014
Terracotta Self Portrait bust by Michael Rysbrack
A Michael Rysbrack Self Portrait.
The Bust in Terra Cotta.
Michael Rysbrack (1684 – 1770),
Terracotta,
60,5 x 50 x 26 cm.
Circa 1730.
Collection of Charles Van Herck,
Exhibited at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht. Netherlands.
Photographs taken 27th May 2013.
Michael Rysbrack (1684 – 1770), Self-portrait (detail), terracotta, 60,5 x 50 x 26 cm.
Circa 1730.
Collection of Charles Van Herck,
at Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht.
There are over 50 terracotta statues on display in the exhibition The Van Herck collection - Terracottas from the 17th and 18th century in the Bonnefantenmuseum.
The statues were part of the impressive collection of the Antwerp art connoisseur and collector Charles Van Herck (1884 – 1955).
A small selection of his collection, which his relatives placed in the custody of the King Boudewijn Foundation in Brussels, is usually on display in the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
As the museum is currently undergoing renovation, this summer the Bonnefantenmuseum is exhibiting a larger selection from this collection and making it accessible once again to a wide public.
Michael Rysbrack
Soldi
Yale Centre for British Art.
...........................
Michael Rysbrack.
from the picture archive of London dealer Philip Mould.
They suggest - circa 1735 by John Vanderbank.
35 1/2 x 27 3/4 inches 90.2 x 70.49 cm
Provenance: Sir George Leon, Bt., Christie's, Lord Major's Appeal fund for the Duke of Gloucester's Red Cross and St. John's Fund 12 July 1940, Lot 859 (45 gns. to Stuart Wortley);
The Hon. Clare Stuart Wortley; Christie's, 30 October, 1942, Lot 92.
A Conversation of Virtuosi ...... at the Kings Arms.
by Gawen Hamilton.
NPG.
Attributed to Gawen Hamilton - oil on canvas; Size 61 x 72 cm.
The Assembly was etched by Richard Sawyer and published by W.B. Tiffin, on 1 May 1829.
The etching identifies eight of the fifteen sitters, including the painters Dahl, Laroon, Hamilton himself and Vanderbank; the architect William Kent; the sculptor Rysbrack; the gardener, Charles Bridgeman, and an unknown 'Gibbons'. Although the etching calls the group simply 'A Society of Artists', it has been suggested that they may be 'Rosacoronians', members of the Rose and Crown Club. The names from the print have been copied out at the top left corner of the painting. The list may have been invented.
From the Ashmolean Museum Website.
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