Jan de Bisschop, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1628 - 1671.

                              Paradigmata graphices variorum artificum.
Engraved by Jan de Bisschop, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1628 - 1671), The Hague, Netherlands) and Gérard de Lairesse, ( 1641 - 1711). Published Nicolaes Visscher , Amsterdam 1618 - Amsterdam 1679.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bust Elizabeth Finch by Roubiliac

        
           Marble bust of Elizabeth Finch, Countess of Mansfield.
                      By Louis Francois Roubiliac, circa 1740.

                                 At Kenwood House, Hampstead, London, English Heritage.

Currently the best images available. This bust could be as early as 1738 made to celebrate the marriage of Elizabeth Finch to William Murray later to become Lord Mansfied.
She was a cousin of Hugh Hume - Campbell, third earl of Marchmont, whose plaster bust of Alexander Pope is mentioned in his account book for 18 January 1738 /39 - "Monsr Rouillac Statuary for Mr Popes busto 2.2.- a slightly later entry for 10th February that year records another payment for Pope's bust and that of their mutual friend Lord Bolingbroke.

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Marble bust probably of Elizabeth Finch by Henrietta Finch.

                                                  Victoria and Albert Museum.

This marble bust is inscribed Henrietta Finch and dated 1741 is a variant of one thought to be of Lady Elizabeth Finch by Louis Francois Roubiliac at Kenwood, London, formerly dated to c.1745. Because the present marble is a lesser copy of the Kenwood sculpture, it is likely that the Roubiliac at Kenwood in fact dates from slightly earlier than previously thought, probably around 1740.

The present bust was formerly thought to be a portrait of Lady Henrietta Finch, Lady Elizabeth's sister, hence the inscription on the back of the integral socle. However it is possible that it was in fact executed by Henrietta, who is shown apparently with a bust on a modelling table in a family portrait of the early 1730s now at the Yale Center for British Art, as if she herself was a practising sculptor. This would mean that the inscription was a signature, rather than one identifying the sitter. As such, it is an extraordinary instance of a marble sculpture by an eighteenth-century woman sculptor in Britain. It is also an interesting example of a copy, and reflects the idea of multiples in sculpture, which was prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries. The acquisition of this bust by the V&A means that it joins other busts of members of the Finch family already in the collection.

Height: 70 cm - Bust and socle, Height: 55 cm - Bust alone, Width: 43 cm.

Information and photographs lifted from the V&A website, see -

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1258272/bust-of-lady-elizabeth-finch-marble-bust-henrietta-finch/

The Watson - Wentworth and Finch Families, circa 1740,

by Charles Philips (1708 - 47).

39 1/2 x 49 inches (100.3 x 124.5 cm). Signed, lower left: "C Philip[?] Pinxit"

http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1670932

       The Bust of  Elizabeth Finch when sold by Sotheby's.

Sold Sotheby's London Lot 258, 27th September 2012, after Louis-François Roubiliac (1702-1762)
Inscribed: Henrietta Finch 1741, white marble on a possibly associated white marble base
69.5cm., 27 3/8 in.

The condition report stated "Overall the condition of the marble is good with dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. The nose is reattached or restored. There are possible further restorations to the proper right cheek and to the mouth. There is some minor veining consistent with the material, including underneath the proper right eye. There are also a few small naturally occurring inclusions, including in the hair and brow. As noted in the cataloguing, the base may be associated, and there are chips and abrasions to the edges. There is some red paint to the lips and a few drips of wax. The marble would benefit from a professional cleaning".

Lady Elizabeth and Lady Henrietta Finch, of circa 1730 - 31.

by Charles Jervas (1675 -1739).

Collection of English Heritage at Kenwood House.

Oil on canvas, 183 x 142 cm. Purchased at P. & D. Colnaghi, 1983.

Daughters of Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham. Finch's second marriage, on 29 December 1685, was to Anne Hatton (1668-1743), daughter of Christopher Hatton, Viscount Hatton. Lady Nottingham was appointed a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary II in 1691. She had over twenty pregnancies

Elizabeth Finch (1723 – 10 April 1784). She married William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield in 1738.

No known descendants.

Lady Henrietta Finch (d. 14 April 1742). She married William Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland, a son of Charles Fitzroy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland and Anne Poultney. No known descendants.

The extract below lifted from Kenwood, Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest by Julius Bryant,

Yale University Press.

Engravings of two busts by Lucas Vorstermans, after Rubens,

circa 1620.

 

 

Plato, engraved by Lucas Vorstermans, circa 1620.

 

Lettered in lower margin, with title and production details: "Pet. Paul Rubens pinxit" and "Luc. Vorstermans sculp." Size - 136mm x 93mm.

 

After the painting by Rubens made for Balthasar Moretus, see below.

 

 

 

Seneca Engraved by Lucas Vorstermans after Rubens.

 

Lettered in lower margin with title and production details: "Pet. Paul Rubens pinxit" and "Luc. Vorstermans scupsit". Size - 135mm x 35mm

Lucas Vorstermans (1595 - 1675) - Engraver, etcher, draughtsman and publisher, the finest in Rubens school; broke with Rubens mid 1622 and left the latter's studio after a row. Came to London in 1624; returned to Antwerp via Paris in 1630; went blind in 1650s. On 11 July 1622 he received a six-year privilege as a publisher from Archduchess Isabella of Austria; teacher of Paulus Pontius, Martinus van der Goes and Hans Witdoeck; father of Lucas Vorsterman II.

Images and information from the British Museum.

 

Rubens - Study of Two heads, circa 1609.

 

27 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (69.9 x 52.1 cm)

Metropolitan Museum - Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967.

 

 

 Peter Paul Rubens - Twelve Famous Greek and Roman Men 1638.

This group of engravings were probably the most influential in disseminating the images of the classical bust throughout northern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

 A series of twelve plates by different printmakers after antique marble portrait sculptures (heads, busts, herms), a project that Rubens completed in 1638, but that must have commenced much earlier (as one of the engravers, Bolswert, died in 1633). A number of these sculptures may have been part of the antiquities collection of Rubens himself; it is known that Nicolaas Rockox acquired the Demosthenes herm in 1622.

The four different engravers were all employed by Rubens in his studio and are Paulus Pontius, Lucas Vorsterman I, Hans Witdoeck and Boëtius Adamsz Bolswert.

The production of the prints was closely supervised by Rubens as attested by five retouched proof impressions. Only six of Rubens' preparatory drawings have survived.

Rubens had such Roman sculptural heads in his own collection, and he would have been aware of the passage in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (XXXV, 9-11) in which he describes the Roman invention of setting up in libraries the portraits of great spirits from the past.

This and the following info from British Museum. Hermitage, St Peterberg, Hunterian Museum Glasgow,

 

Sophocles wearing a taenia and drapery, after Rubens engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.

 

Lettered in lower margin, with production details and title: Ex marmore antiquo and P.P. Rubens delin. / P. Pontius sculpsit. Ao. 1638 and "Cum Priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ". Size - 305mm x 218mm.

 

 

Plato after Rubens engraved by Lucas Vorsterman, 1638.

 

Herm statue of the Greek philosopher Epicure wrongly titled Plato.  Lettered in lower margin,  Ex marmore antique and "P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculp." and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). Size - 291mm x 189mm.

 

A drawing by Rubens is in the Morgan Library, New York, inv.no.III,161; a preparatory drawing by Vorsterman is in the Fondation Custodia, Paris, inv.no.5949; see F. Stampfle, 'Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library', New York-Princeton, 1991, pp.156-157, cat.no.324.

 

 

Socrates, engraved by Paulus Pontius after Rubens, 1638.

 

Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / P. Pontius sculpsit. Ao. 1638" and "Cum Privilegiis Regis Christianiss. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ". Size - 311mm x 213mm.

 

Some scholars identify the portrait as the historiographer Thucydides.

After an unknown drawing by Rubens. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection).

 

Demosthenes, after Rubens engraved by H. Witdoeck, 1638.

              Herm statue of the Greek poet Anakreon (wrongly titled Demosthenes)

Ex marmore antiquo, apud D. Nicolavm Rockoxivm, Antuerpiæ" and "P.P. Rubens delineavit. / H. Withouc sculpsit. Ao.1638" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ".

After an unknown drawing by Rubens; a proof impression of the plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

After a marble sculpture which belonged to Nicolaas Rockox until his death in 1640 after which Queen Christina of Sweden acquired it. It is now in the National Museum of Stockholm.

 

Cicero after Rubens, engraved by Jan Witdoeck, 1638.

 

Bust statue of Julius Caesar (wrongly titled Cicero) with short hair, wearing a fringed scarf, bust on a pedestal, almost seen in profile to right; from the set of twelve plates showing antique busts after drawings by Rubens.

After an unknown drawing by Rubens; a proof impression of the plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, inv.no.C10.516. After an unidentified marble sculpture (part of Rubens' antiquities collection).

 

The similarity of this bust with that of the Roubiliac bust of Alexander Pope should be noted.

 

 

Scipio Africanus, after Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.

 

Ex marmore antiquo" and P.P. Rubens delin. / H. Withouc sculp. Ao.1638" and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.

After a grisaille by Rubens, lost since 1912; a proof impression of the plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, inv.no.C10.517. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). Size - 295mm x 216mm.

 

Nero, after Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.

 

Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delineavit. / P. Pontius sculpsit Ao. 1638" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ".

After a pen drawing by Rubens, now in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge Mass., inv.no.1932.360; a proof impression of this plate retouched by Rubens is in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, inv.no.C10.517.

After an unidentified marble sculpture (part of Rubens' antiquities collection acquired in 1618 from Sir Dudley Carleton). Size - 310mm x 203mm.

 

 

 

  Democritus after Rubens engraved by Lucas Vorstermans, 1738.

Ex marmore antiquo and P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculp. and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.

The identification as Democritus is uncertain.
After an unknown drawing by Rubens. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection). Size 259mm x 210mm.

Julius Caeser after Rubens engraved by Ademsz Boetius c.1638.

 

Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / B a Bolswert sculpsit" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ". Size - 290mm x 212mm.

After a pen drawing by Rubens, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, inv.no.20.225. After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection).

Seneca, after Rubens, engraved by Lucas Vorstermans,1638.

 

Ex marmore antiquo" and "P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculpsit Ao. 1638" and "Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ

 

After a sketch by Rubens in the Metropolitan Museum New York (see below)

 

After an unidentified marble sculpture (part of Rubens' antiquities collection since 1608, brought back from Italy).

 

 

Brutus after Rubens, engraved by Lucas Vorstermans.1638.

Ex marmore antiquo and P.P. Rubens delin. / L. Vorsterman sculpsit Ao. 1638" and Cum priuilegiis Regis Christianissimi. / Principum Belgarum et Ord. Batauiæ.

 

After a pen drawing by Rubens, now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg, inv.no.5461.

After an unidentified marble sculpture (probably part of Rubens' antiquities collection).

Size 284mm x 197mm.

 

 

Hippocates, after Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius, 1638.

 

"HIPPOCRATES HIRACLIDAE F. COVS. Ex marmore antiquo." (b.l.) "P.P. Rubens delineauit. P. Pontius Sculp. A1638." (b.r.) "Cum Privilegiis Regis Christianiss Principum Belgarum, et Ordy Batauiae" Verso hidden by mount. Size 

 

Image from The Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow.

see - http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=art&searchTerm=8071

 

Sketch of Seneca by Rubens in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

 

 

The Four Philosophers - Rubens.

 

From the left, self portrait of Rubens, his brother Philip Rubens, Justus Lisius and Jan van de Wouwere - Pitti Palace, Florence

 

 

Bust of the Architect Isaac Ware (1704 - 66) 

by Roubiliac at the National Portrait Gallery.

A good enough reason as any to include these busts at this point in this blog is the similarity in dress of the bust of Ware to that of Handel - one is the reverse of the other. Why did Roubiliac do this - was it showing off? - it cannot have been easy - he must have used some sort of pointing system and reversed all the measurements.

This text below was lifted from NPG Website - Originally published in John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977 (and now out of print). The information is out of date - it was written before the purchase of a similar bust by the Detroit Institute of Art originally described in an inventory of 1773 of Sir John Ingilby at Ripley Castle, Yorkshire and by descent to the family of Sir Thomas Ingilby, Ripley Castle until 1987. 

Isaac Ware (d.1766)
Architect; of humble origin, sent to Italy to study; on his return closely connected with Lord Burlington's circle; from 1728 Ware held several posts in the office of works, and from 1736 was secretary to the board; built Chesterfield House, 1748-49 (destroyed 1934) and Wrotham Park, Middlesex, 1754, built for the unfortunate Admiral Byng; published The Complete Body of Architecture, 1735, and the translation of Palladio, 1738, dedicated to Burlington; he was a member of the St Martin's Lane Academy. Ware married (1) Elizabeth Richards, by whom he had a son Walter James, and (2) Mary Bolton, by whom there were two daughters. [1]
4982 By Louis François Roubiliac, c.1741
White marble bust, 27 in. (675 mm) high, including grey veined marble socle; head turned to right and tilted slightly, own short hair, pupils not incised, concave cheeks, dimpled chin, square jaw; large cap with tassel, shirt open at the collar, loose coat buttoned at the top.
Incised on the front of the socle in gold capitals: ISAAC WARE.

George Vertue notes, probably after a visit to the sculptor's studio, between 2 June and October 1741: 'Mr. Rubbilac Sculptor of Marble—besides several works in Marble—moddels in Clay. had Modelld from the Life several Busts or portraits extreamly like M^r. Pope. more like than any other Sculptor has done I think M^r. Hogarth very like.—M^r. Isaac Ware Architect M^r Handel—&c and several others. being very exact Imitations of Nature—'. [1] Both terra cotta and marble busts of Pope (q.v.) and Handel (q.v.) survive, but of Hogarth only a terra cotta (q.v.) is known. Vertue does not specify what he saw of Ware, but the wording strongly suggests a sitting. Roubiliac would first have taken a clay or clays ad vivum which was probably fired subsequently. A mould was in Roubiliac's sale, possibly indicating the production of a plaster cast, but no clay or terra cotta is now known. The NPG portrait is the only extant version. On stylistic grounds it is unlikely to have been made late in Roubiliac's career.

The situation is complicated by a reference found in Smith's Life of Nollekens, which could imply a date not earlier than 1755. The author refers to Ware's account of his own humble beginnings as the son of a chimney sweep which 'narrative my father heard the Architect himself relate, while he was sitting to Mr. Roubiliac for his bust'. [3] Later Smith again mentions the work: 'Early in life, I engraved a very indifferent plate of Ware's bust, which was one of Roubiliac's best performances'. [4]

Unfortunately he gives no location for the bust which he engraved, and while the engraving is similar in some respects to NPG 4982, it is not absolutely certain that it is the same bust. There are some small differences. In the engraving the pupils are incised, there are two buttons on the neckband of the shirt, the cap and coat are shaded, and the shirt is left white. This led Mrs Esdaile to conclude that the engraving was of a coloured bust, like that of Colley Cibber (q.v.), now attributed to the Cheere workshop, but which she believed to be by Roubiliac. Noting that it was not until 1755 that Smith's father became Roubiliac's apprentice, Mrs Esdaile also concluded that Vertue's reference of 1741 must apply to some other bust now lost, [5] but both on stylistic grounds and on apparent age—the sitter looks a little younger than in the portrait by Soldi of c.1754 (see Iconography)—there is nothing against a date of c.1741 for NPG 4982.

Smith's reference seems too circumstantial to be dismissed as a mistake. If correct, it must either predicate a full second sitting, or the touching up from the sitter of a marble based on an earlier model. It is a matter of opinion, but NPG 4982 may be thought to contain a smaller element of realism than persists in Roubiliac's marbles of Pope and Handel in relation to their terra cottas. This suggests that it may have been produced without direct reference to the sitter and may not be the bust mentioned by the elder Smith.

Condition: the head, the tip of the nose, and the fold in the coat on the sitter's right shoulder had been broken and skilfully repaired prior to acquisition; the socle is modern.
Collections: bought 1974 with the help of the National Art Collections Fund; from the collection of Major Richard Wellesley, of Buckland House, Berkshire, Christie's, 4 December 1973, lot 159, bought Cyril Humphris, and according to the sale catalogue, previously in the collection of Lady Fitzgerald.

A marble bust of Isaac Ware is mentioned in an 1861 [6] inventory of Buckland House and in 1912 under the heading 'Staircase and Hall'. Major Wellesley's grandmother, Lady Fitzgerald, wife of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, 20th Knight of Kerry, acquired Buckland House and some furniture from the Throckmortons in 1908; [7]NPG 4982 may thus have descended in the Throckmorton family. An expensive object like a marble bust is not likely to have been commissioned by the sitter. The obvious patron is Chesterfield, or perhaps Byng. However there seems to be no record of NPG 4982 in such ownership, and a connection with the Throckmortons is not apparent.

Engraved: the type was engraved by J.T. Smith (unsigned), published J. Richardson, 1802, 'From a Bust by Roubylliac' and issued in Illustrations for the Rev. Mr. Lyson's Environs of London, 1811 (pl.88).
Exhibited: 'English Taste in the Eighteenth Century', RA, 1955-56 (147).
Literature: H.M. Colvin, 'Roubiliac's Bust of Isaac Ware', Burlington Magazine, XCVII, 1955; J.T. Smith, Nollekens and His Times, ed. W. Whitten, 1920.

Iconography
The only other portrait is the oil attributed to Soldi in the RIBA. This probably dates from c.1754 as it shows an elevation of Wrotham Park, which is seen in construction in the background. It includes one of the sitter's two daughters or possibly his second wife. [8]

Notes
1. Colvin, pp.649-51; Sir John Summerson, unpublished information.
2. Vertue, III, p.105.
3. Smith, II, p.143.
4. Ibid.
5. Esdaile, pp.51, 108.
6. Information kindly supplied by Miss Thompson, archivist at Coughton Court.
7. Information kindly communicated by Major Wellesley, 1 May 1974.
8. Connoisseur, vol.186, 1974, pp.180-81.

Buckland House was designed by Bath Architect John Wood senior, it was substantially  altered by his son John Wood Junior and appears in Vitruvius Britannicus of 1767.

By coincidence the marble bust of Alexander Pope which was owned by Burford antiques dealer Roger Warner (currently April 2015 with London Historic portrait dealer Phillip Mould) was bought at the same sale of the conrents by Christies

see http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw06594/Isaac-Ware?LinkID=mp04707&role=sit&rNo=0

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Bust of Isaac Ware at The Detroit Institute of Art.

Terracotta bust of Handel at the Foundling Museum shown here to illustrate the use of the same coat but reversed.

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Originally described in an inventory of 1773 of Sir John Ingilby at Ripley Castle, Yorkshire and by descent to the family of Sir Thomas Ingilby, Ripley Castle until 1987. Sold by private treaty to the DIA. Eyes Incised.

Engraving of 1806 of a bust of Isaac Ware by Roubiliac. J.T. Smith (unsigned), published J. Richardson, 1802, 'From a Bust by Roubylliac' and issued in Illustrations for the Rev. Mr. Lyson's Environs of London, 1811

Portrait of Isaac Ware by Andrea Soldi c.1754, Oil on canvas, 110 x 93 cm.

Isaac Ware (1704–1766) was a protégé of Lord Burlington and a leading member of the second generation of Palladian architects who combined elements of the rococo in their work. The architect holds his design for Wrotham Park, Middlesex, made for Admiral John Byng. The girl is almost certainly his youngest daughter Mary, who stayed with him until his death. 

Isaac Ware's principal works included Chesterfield House, Mayfair (1748–1749) and Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire (1754), while he is most remembered for his publication 'The Complete Body of Architecture' (1756) and his scholarly translation into English of Andrea Palladio’s 'Four Books of Architecture' (1738).

Andrea Soldi, though originally from Florence, began his career as a portrait painter working for British merchants in Turkey. He arrived in London in 1736 and was an immediate success but an extravagant lifestyle led to the debtors prison in 1744 and his career never really recovered.

Collection: The Royal Institute of British Architects’.