The Rysbrack Statuettes of Rubens, van Dyck and du Quesnoy, Part 32, Scheemakers Monument to Shakespeare, its Genesis, Variants and influence. Craggs Monument

 

Scheemakers Monument to Shakespeare of 1740,

Westminster Abbey;

its Genesis and it Variants.

 

I have already written at some length about the rather indifferent Italian sculptor Guelphi and his very influential statue on the monument to James Craggs in Westminster Abbey, see -

 

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/notes-on-giovanni-battista-guelfi-16912.html

 

On this page I attempt to illustrate how the pose of the Cragg statue by Guelphi influenced the pose of Scheemaker's Shakespeare, which in turn influenced other mid 18th century sculptures and paintings, particularly the portraits by Thomas Hudson.

 

 

 

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The Monument to James Craggs the Younger (1686 - 1721).

Westminster Abbey.

 

 

Preparatory Sketch for the Monument to Secretary James Craggs.

in Westminster  Abbey.

Design by James Gibbs.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

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Low resolution photograph of the Cragg Monument.

Photography is not currently allowed in Westminster Abbey (entry £18).

In 1718 James Craggs had reached the peak of his political career when he succeeded Joseph Addison as Secretary of State.

 

The erection of this monument to James Craggs the Younger, who had died suddenly of smallpox on 16 February 1721, was supervised by Alexander Pope, who wrote his epitaph. His father died a month later leaving a great fortune to the three Cragg sisters, Mary, Elizabeth and Anne. Shortly before he died father and son were involved in the scandal of the South Sea Bubble.

 

His father was - 'the principal agent for the Administration in the whole transaction of the South Sea project and bore the chief blame for all the iniquity of it, as an accomplice with the leading director, and having made an immense gain by the stock, and being a man generally detested he was soon marked out for a sacrifice to the indignation of the people. His great spirit not brooking this, and knowing the severity, as he called it, of a House of Commons examination, and having just lost his son by the smallpox, he died soon afterwards, not without very strong suspicions of having used violence to himself'

 

 HMC 14th Rep. IX, 459, 511; Dodington Diary, 271; CJ, xix. 424-51.

 

The sisters were responsible for the erection of the monument - 

Popes epitaph -

'Fiend of truth. Of soul sincere, In action faithful and in honour clear. Who broke no promise. Servd no private end.

 

 

 

 

 

Terracotta model for the statue on monument to James Craggs by Guelphi.

Soane Museum.

 

The pose of this statue was very influential on future monuments - the Westminster Abbey monument to Shakespeare by Scheemakers of 1740 being the prime example, on the monument of 1746 to William and Elizabeth Powlett at St George's Church West Grinstead by Rysbrack, the statue of George Cooke of about 1749 formerly in the gardens of Belhamonds House, Middlesex and now in the Ashmolean, the 1757 monument to Charles Polhill, St Bartholemew, Otford, Kent by Henry Cheere, the 1761  to Cholmley Turner, at St Cuthberts, Kirkleatham, Cleveland also by Henry Cheere.

 

 

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Engraving by Pierre Daret.

Autumn by Sarazin 1642.

 

"Autumn" for the Château de Wideville, about 1635 Jacques Sarazin, French 1588─1660.

 

I believe this engraving is the most likely source for Guelphi's statue of Craggs.

Image Cooper Hewitt Museum.

 

 

 

Sketch for the Sarazin Statue.

 

Study for the Sculpture "Autumn" for the Château de Wideville, about 1635 Jacques Sarazin, French 1588─1660.

 

 Image Cooper Hewitt Museum.

 

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Ancient statue of the Resting Satyr, Prado Madrid.

 

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William Kent.

c.1725.

by William Aikman (1682 - 1731).

1971 x 1039 mm.

Aikman's portrait was painted for Lord Castlemaine for the overmantel in the Great Hall of Wanstead in Essex, his magnificent Palladian house which is long since demolished. 

The hall ceiling, representing the Times of Day, was decorated by Kent and he is shown holding his palette and brushes.

National Portrait Gallery

 

 

Preparatory Sketch by Aikman for the Portrait of William Kent

Oil on Canvas

494 x 389 mm

 

Yale Centre for British Art

They say the subject is the poet James Thomson but comparison with the portrait above and other portraits of Thomson (see below) would suggest that the subject is Kent and not Thomson.

 

http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1668064

 

 

Finished portrait of Thomson by Aikman

Oil 561 x 439 mm.

National Galleries of Scotland

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Another portrait (below) by Aikman using the Craggs pose.

 

 

 

Sir Thomas Saunders Sebright (1692–1736), 4th Bt (or 'Mr Crawley').

William Aikman (1682–1731)

National Trust, Blickling Hall.

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Skeleton of a Boy About Nine Years Old,"
from Osteographia, or The Anatomy of Bones (1733),

by William Cheselden.
illustrations by Gerard Vandergucht and Jacob Schijnvoet.

For more illustrations from this very important work see - http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/cheseldens-osteographia-1733/

 

We will come to William Cheselden (1688 - 1752) in this blog in due course.

Cheselden was a friend and the Physician of Alexander Pope, a member of the St Martin's Lane Academy founding governer of the Foundling Hospitaland sat for his portrait by Roubiliac - a plaster version is in the Royal College of Surgeons

 

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Peter Scheemakers.

Kirkleatham (Yorks): Mausoleum,

Church of St Cuthbert.

Design for the monument to Marwood William Turner, c.1739.

Soane Museum.

 

 

The Monument to Marwood William Turner (as built), who died aged 21 at Lyon, whilst making his Grand Tour by Scheemakers as erected c. 1740/2.

 

see - T Friedman, 'Scheemakers's Monument to the Best of Sons', Burlington Magazine, January 1980, 61-5;

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Theodore Jacobsen

by Thomas Hudson

Oil on canvas, 236.2 x 137.1 cm.

1746.

Foundling Museum

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Monument to Peregrine Bertie 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven.

1748. 

St Michael and All Angels,

Main St.

 Edenham. Lincolnshire.

Henry Cheere.

see - London Evening Post August 1748.

 

See future posts on this blog for the remarkable collection of 18th century monuments at Edenham.

This church is a must for anyone interested in 18th century funerary monuments, but also has a fine collection of Saxon and early English carved stonework.

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Statuette of Hercules resting after his eleventh labour holding the apple of the Hesperides.

Michael Rysbrack.

Signed Mich. Rysbrack 1744.

Stourhead

Painted Terracotta.

600 mm.

Inspired by the Farnese Hercules.

Left to Henry Hoare in the Will of Michael Rysbrack 1770.

This is a model for the over life size Hercules in Marble of 1747 now in the Pantheon (designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1753/4) at Stourhead.

National Trust.

 

 

 

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Monument to Sir John Dutton d.1743

Michael Rysbrack.

Sherborne, Gloucestershire.

1749.

'He represented this County in Parliament with great integrity'.

 

Retrieved the family fortunes by two judicious marriages after his fathers near disastrous gambling habit.

 

Dutton family records at Gloucester Records Office

 

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Lead Statuette of Pope by John Cheere c.1749.

Height 47 cms.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

 

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Charles Seymour Duke of Somerset (1662 - 1748)

Chancellor of the University 1689 - 1748

A rare example of a statue dressed in the van Dyck style.

Note the lace collar.

Michael Rysbrack

1756

Senate House

Cambridge.

 

 

Another poor quality black and white photograph of the Duke of Somerset

Senate House, Cambridge

Michael Rysbrack

1756.

Photograph: Conway Library.

 

Free standing statues in the 18th century apart from Royalty are relatively unusual, Roubiliac's Shakespeare from Hampton for Garrick, his Isaac Newton at Trinity, his Forbes and Molineux, and Sir George Cooke by Henry Cheere, are further examples.  

 

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A near-life-size portrait of Alexander Thistlethwayte, illustrating the Craggs / Shakespeare pose,, who was representative of Hampshire in the House of Commons 1751–1761, his wife Sarah, and their daughters Anne and Catherine. As the elder daughter Catherine was depicted in pink, which was a colour frequently worn by betrothed women, the portrait could have been commissioned to commemorate her forthcoming wedding. The work probably hung in the family home at Southwick Place, Hampshire, in Thistlethwayte's lifetime.   Thomas Hudson (1701 - 79). c. 1758.   Yale Centre for British Art.   ________________________________________

 

 

 David Garrick.

19th Century Copy of the painting destroyed in a fire at Stratford.

The Palladian Bridge at Prior Park, Widcombe, Bath in the background.

After Gainsborough.

National Trust - Charlecote Park, Warwickshire

Oil on Canvas.

1137 x 756 mm.

The bust of Shakespeare looks to be a version of the Rysbrack terracotta now at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Another version of this painting is in the Folger Shakespeare Library.

The Original by Gainsborough was exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great Britain at Spring Gardens Charing Cross in 1766.

 

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For my and hopefully the readers amusement - a few more instances of the Craggs pose

 

 

 William Farington of Shawe Hall, Lancashire. ca. 1743

Arthur Devis.

Another portrait attributed to Devis

 

Portrait by Arthur Devis

 

 

Portrait of Unknown Man

Devis

Birmingham Museums Trust

 

 

 

 

Devis again

Metropolitan Museum

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William Wollaston, MP, Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1759.

The Holburne Museum, Bath

The Rysbrack Statuettes of Rubens, van Dyck and du Quesnoy, Part 31, Scheemakers Monument of Shakespeare and it Variants - Lifesize Plaster..

Post updated and edited 31 August 2024.

The Scheemakers Marble Statue of William Shakespeare.

The Monument in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey and it Variants.

The Full Size Plaster Cast.

For much more on the Scheemakers Westminster Abbey Statue and its variants.

see my blog post -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-portrait-sculpture-at-wilton-house.html

The Statue is inscribed P. Scheemakers 1, MDCCXL, on a composition base, all raised on a separate wooden plinth, old damage to composition base. 

Maximum dimensions including plinth approximately 117cmcm wide, 56cm deep, 264cm high (46in wide, 22in deep, 103.5in high).

It had previously appeared at the Bonham's saleroom in London.

Provenance: This lot was removed from the Foreign Press Association, Carlton House Terrace, London where it stood in the entrance hall for some years. 

It was reputedly acquired from the Criterion Theatre at Piccadilly Circus. This sculpture is made from plaster and composition stone rather that painted metal as written in the catalogue.

The Union Club had taken over the two buildings in 1923 

The Foreign Press Association were at 10 and 11 Carlton House Terrace in the 1950's

As yet I have not received any confirmation of this provenance.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16827/lot/63/

Up date - this cast came to the market in 2022 with London Dealer James Graham Stewart

when it was exhibited at the Masterpiece fair in London, and was subsequently sold. 

https://www.jamesgraham-stewart.com/

This post was created to examine and record a detailed history of the Scheemakers stone version at Wilton House. The pose of the Wilton Statue is very similar and it is carved in the round but the pedestal that he is leaning on is quite different from the Westminster monument.

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It would appear that this a full size cast of the marble on Westminster the monument.

This suggests to me that the cast was taken of the marble before the statue left the Scheemakers workshop, possibly John Cheere who almost certainly provided the much reduced plaster from Kirkleatham Hall, now in York Museum. This was taken from a terracotta maquette signed and dated 1740 see the images below.

The marks of the sculptors tools used to model the original terracotta are plainly visible.

This also might suggest some sort of working relationship between Scheemakers and John Cheere whose workshop was close by at Stone Bridge, on what became Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner.

It is always possible that the statue was taken down from the monument at some point in its history and a cast taken but the logistics of this make it appear very unlikely to me.

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The Kirkleatham Plaster Statuette of Shakespeare, 

probably cast from the original terracotta maquette by Peter Scheemakers.

Signed and dated 1740.

Supplied to Chomley Turner (1685 - 1757) of Kirkleatham Hall, Yorkshire by John Cheere in 1749.

Supplied at the same time were a further 9 plaster statuettes and 9 plaster busts.

Height 19.5 inches.

Statuettes of Homer, Spenser, Pope, Milton, Inigo Jones, Newton, Locke, Rubens and Van Dyck (both after M Rysbrack).

Some of these busts were based on the work of contemporary sculptors, Peter Scheemakers (1691-1781), Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770), and Louis François Roubiliac (1695-1762); others were probably original creations by Cheere, based on engravings. 

The bust of Matthew Prior (1664-1721), poet and diplomat, derives from the marble bust by the French sculptor, Antoine Coysevox, which is on Rysbrack’s 1723 funerary monument to Prior in Westminster Abbey. 

The busts of Bacon and Dryden are loosely based on busts by Peter Scheemakers, while the very youthful looking one of Addison imitates an engraving by George Vertue of a painting by Kneller. 

The busts of Cicero and Horace were taken from casts of antique originals,

 The origin of the designs for the busts of Swift, Congreve, and Clark is uncertain. 

Henry Cheere supplied the full size statue of Chomley Turner for his Mausoleum at Kirkleatham. He is depicted in the same pose as the Craggs and later Shakespeare monuments at Westminster.

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The Full Size Plaster Cast from the Westminster Monument.

 

 

A full size version of Scheemakers Statue of Shakespeare.

Plaster.

(Private Collection).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Scheemakers Sale, 10th & 11th March 1756.

Under the heading Marbles etc.

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 First Day, under the heading Marbles etc. Lot 57. Bust of Shakespeare. £14 0s 6d.

Second Day, Under the heading Marbles etc. Lot 59. Statue of Shakespeare.- s, £13 1s.

Images Courtesy Wellcome Library.

This might refer to the Plaster cast pictured here but it is possible that it refers to the marble statuette sold at Sotheby's New York. 20 Oct 2022, Lot 372. Illustrated below.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/19th-century-works-of-art/marble-figure-of-shakespeare-leaning-on

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The Westminster Abbey Shakespeare Monument.

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The Sotheby's Marble Statuette.

New York. 20 Oct 2022, Lot 372.

Catalogued as late 19th Century.

The Scheemakers Sale of 1756 on the Second Day, Under the heading Marbles etc. Lot 59. included a "Statue of Shakespeare", sold for £13 1s.

This might refer to the Plaster Cast pictured above, but it is more likely that it refers to the marble statuette sold at Sotheby's New York. 20 Oct 2022, Lot 372. Illustrated below.

Height: 24 1/4 in.; 61.6 cm width: 16 1/2 in.; 41.9 cm

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/19th-century-works-of-art/marble-figure-of-shakespeare-leaning-on

There is no reason to describe this very fine work as late 19th century except for lazy cataloguing.

The sculptor would have had to have access to an original in order to reproduce it so closely.

It should also be noted that the back of the pedestal is much less truncated.

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