Yale centre for British Art.
Auction catalogues.
Monday, 3 March 2025
Thursday, 5 September 2024
Mrs. Mary Landré - Figure Maker
Mrs. Mary Landré (fl 1768 - 74) - Figure Maker.
A few notes.
Wife of John Landre (d.1765) of St Giles Parish, .
Will proved - 23 December 1765. The National Archives' reference -PROB 11/914/414
left his house in Dublin to his wife and after her decease to the two daughters of his brother Francis.
..........................
Mary Landre - In 1766, supplied ornamental figures and vases to Duke of Bedford (Poole/Woburn Abbey).
from - https://www.northernceramicsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DEALERS-LIST-November2022.pdf
...........................
For the Wedgwood Triton after Bernini see -
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/719580.1
Drunken Silenus - Wedgwood relief .
John Landre.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Banks-106-18
.........................
Wedgwood and Mrs Landre.
Wedgwood himself was, directly and indirectly, involved in piracy and in a letter Bentley of 31 October 1768, he articulated his fear of this piracy being discovered by the owner of a London plaster shop:
"What shall I do - I dare not write to her, Mrs. Landre, from hence and in my own name, Voyez [a freelance modeller who once worked for Wedgwood] says she is the D.. .1 [devil] at finding out pirates, and if she once finds me out, I shall never be able to get a cast from her
.................
Mary Landre From Life of Josiah Wedgwood...... Eliza Meteyard 1866
Bill 21 Jan 1769
Bill to Wedgwood paid 15 June 1775.
........................
Peter Landre d 1764, Dublin, Brother of John Landre.
His will 1747 described as Gardener Prerogative Wills of Ireland.
1758 Elizabeth Landre
Roques Map of Dublin.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03085694.2022.2042125#d1e653
Landre's Gardens
The attention given to individual structures varies. The
drawing of the mansion in Capel Street that belonged to William Conolly,
Speaker in the House of Commons and the richest commoner in early
eighteenth-century Ireland, seems cursory (Fig. 6, top). In contrast a house
resembling a Parisian hôtel entre cour et jardin, just off St Stephen’s Green,
has been rendered meticulously (Fig. 6, bottom). It had belonged to the
Huguenot, Peter Landré, but by the time Rocque had arrived it had been
converted into a miniature pleasure garden, with orchestra and tea and
chocolate houses, before being sold to the sometime banker, lawyer and member
of the Irish parliament, Anthony Malone. The garden and house were situated in
the heart of one of the more affluent and relatively densely built-up areas of
the city.Footnote87
Fig. 6. Details from An Exact Survey of Dublin (1756). Top:
the house in Capel Street belonging to William Conolly, Speaker of the House of
Commons. Despite the rather casual style of the drawing, attention has been
paid to the steps between the terrace and the lawns. Bottom: the noticeably
more careful depiction of Peter and John Landré’s former house off the
north eastern corner of St Stephen's Green. Considerable attention has been paid
to the layout of the house, which resembles that of a Parisian hôtel entre
court et jardin, in contrast to the sketchy rendering of the house of the
influential William Conolly.
....................
Peter Landre (d.1747 aged 80) was importing fruit trees from England in 1714
ref Making the Grand Figure: Lives and Possessions in Ireland, 1641-1770 By Toby Christopher Barnard,
.........................
James and Peter Landre Nurserymen of St Stephens Green - Stock sold off when lease expired before 1740 - ref. Dictionary Of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturalists Including ...By Ray Desmond 1994.
From Faulkner's Dublin Journal.
Spring Gardens St Stephens Green, vocal and instrumental musical concerts in 1750 "in the manner of Vauxhall, London.
see - Theatre in Dublin, 1745-1820: A Calendar of Performances, Volume 1, By John C. Greene, 2011
................
Lots 9, 10, 11, and 12 formerly belonging to the Earl of Roscommon, later Peter Andre - one brick house and Landre's Gardens fronting the Green 238 ft later belonging to Anthony Malone - Ref The Georgian Society Records of Eighteenth Century Domestic Architecture and Decoration in Dublin, Volume 2 - 1969.
Perhaps a coincidence ! but the Landre connection with van Nost is interesting.
John Van Nost III the sculptor was living in Aungier Street in 1759, and later in 1763 "in the garden of the Right Hon. Anthony Malone (1700 -76), on the east side of Stephen's Green" (see "Faulkner's Journal," 11th June, 1763, and "Georgian Society," Vol. II).
On his leaving Aungier Street he had a sale of his moulds and models, and some of them were bought by the young sculptor, Patrick Cunningham, who had been an apprentice of Van Nost.
Van Nost made a number of visits to London: these included one in
1753 or 1754 to hold sittings with King George II for the equestrian statue in
St Stephen's Green, another in 1763, when he had a London address 'At Mr
Clarke's, St Martin's-lane, opposite May's-buildings',
In 1763 he was listed in Mortimer’s Universal Director ‘at
Mr Clarke’s, St Martin’s-lane, opposite May’s-buildings’ (p 28; Rate-Books
1763, Cleansing Street Rates, F6007).
for Anthony Malone see - https://www.dib.ie/biography/malone-anthony-a5418
In 1779
the sculptor was residing at No. 21 Mecklenburgh Street, and in that year, on
19th October, his statue of "Hugh Lawton," Mayor of Cork, 1776, was
erected in Cork. In the following year he went to London, where he stayed four
years on account of ill-health. Returning to Dublin he there passed the
remainder of his life, dying in Mecklenburgh Street in 1787.
.........................
Peter Landre deceased 1754 - Two Houses in Dawson Street.
.......................
Researcher ref Mrs Landre- https://x.com/SMayjohnson/status/1711045166880948403
Monday, 2 September 2024
Musee de Beaux Arts Brussels. The English 18th Century Sculpture.
aide memoire.
The Musee de Beaux Arts, Brussels.
The English 18th Century Sculpture.
....................
The Marble Bust of Lady Jemima Dutton.
Michael Rysbrack.
Signé et daté sous l'épaule gauche : M :l Rysbrack / Fe :t 1745 ;
sur la face antérieure du socle : JEMIMA DUTTON
Dimensions : (85,5 x) 60 x 47,8 x 30,5
Acquired from M. Léon Gauchez, Paris, 1895.
..........................
The Duke of Cumberland.
Terracotta Signé et daté au revers : Mich: Rysbrack / 1754
Dimensions : 62 x 55,4 x 36,2
Acquired from Spink & Son, Ltd., London 1936, "on
behalf of the Rt. Hon. Lord Hatherton, Stafford".
..........................
John Willet, Magistrate.
Michael Rysbrack
1763 — Inv. 2756
Statue, marble
A gauche, sur la face latérale gauche de l'embase de la
colonne : Michl. Rysbrack, Sculpt. 1763. ; sur la face avant de l'embase de la
colonne : Go, and do thou likewise.
Dimensions : 185,7 x 98 x 59,3
Origine : Acquis de Mr. Bernheim aîné, Bruxelles, 1878.
............................
Anthony Van Dyke
attributed to Michael Rysbrack.
Oval Relief, Terracotta
En exergue : D.ANTONIUS-VAN DYCK
Dimensions : 41,5 x 36,2 x 7,6.
Acquired from Mr. P.-J. de Kuyper, 1872.
Friday, 23 June 2023
17th and 18th Century English Portrait Sculpture and the Blog.
17th and 18th Century English Portrait Sculpture and the Blog.
Perhaps in celebration of the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery.
The intention with the commencing of this blog was to create a place which could act as an online filing system and aide memoire, and to then transplant the edited and enlarged results into my main blog.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/
In fact it took on something of a life of its own.
After something of a sabbatical - a large 18th century house restoration project - I have returned to the subject and will continue to post on my main blog.
Portrait Sculpture has long been the poor relation in the art world playing second fiddle to painting - one of my intentions was to address this and to attempt to re-popularise it in my own small way.
Monday, 17 August 2020
The Bust of Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
The Terracotta/Plaster Bust of Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Some Notes:
H 60 x W 64 x D 37 cm
A gift from Richard Owen, 1894.
I have not inspected this bust. They say terracotta which at first glance these photographs seem to confirm (where it is chipped it is orange underneath) but the British Museum say that is plaster and the photographs of the close up of the face seem to show air bubbles on the surface.
Interestingly there were three terracotta busts of Shakespeare in the posthumous sale of Roubiliac of May 1762. one is in the BM, another must be the Garrick Davenant - where is the third?
Although painted I cannot distinguish any cast marks or seams. It would be interesting to compare this bust with the Garrick " Davenant" bust particularly the size. If it is a terracotta cast from the original then it would probably be reduced in size by about 10% given the shrinkage of the clay when fired
I have already written at some length on these busts of Shakespeare but I take this opportunity to post these recent photographs of this version of the so called "Davenant" bust from the Art UK website.
Here are the links to my previous 5 posts which might be read in conjunction with this post.
Unfortunately whoever posted the Art UK entry had not done their homework and they have reiterated the apocryphal story about the original terracotta being found walled up above a doorway when the old Duke's Theatre Lincolns Inn Fields was being demolished.
see -
This photograph and that below seems to show bubbles on the surface, despite the overpaint, which suggests that it is actually plaster and not terracotta
_______________
The myth of the discovery of the Garrick Club Davenant bust which had been discovered bricked up in the Duke's Theatre in Portugal Street, has been exploded by Marcus Risdell, (formerly curator at the Garick Club) who has discovered documentary proof that it came from the garden of 39 Portugal Row - the terrace on the South side of Lincolns Inn Fields.
The 'Davenent bust' - is so called after Sir William Davenant (1606 - 68) who was the proprietor of the Dukes Theatre in Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields 1660 until his death in 1668, (Portugal Street runs parallel with Portugal Row the South side of Lincolns Inn Fields).
This Communication below from Marcus Risdell, Curator of Works of Art at the Garrick Club.
'Roubiliac original terracotta bust 1) Garrick Club bust, (rediscovered by William Clift, first curator of the Hunterian Museum) in 1834 (source is Clift's papers held at Royal College of Surgeons) it was found in the garden of No 39 Lincoln's Inn Fields by a water pump in a position I have identified in surveys made by the Royal College of Surgeons to have been right by the main entrance. It became known through association of the theatre as the Davenant Bust, but as we now suspect was sited at the theatre by Henry Giffard who attempted the last theatrical season there in 1742-43
Incidentally Giffard also used a full size Scheemakers as a pantomime stage prop at his previous theatre. Goodman's Fields where he first put on Garrick. This I covered in the catalogue: The Face & Figure of Shakespeare at Orleans House Gallery. Anyway I digress: the bust passed to Professor Owen who showed it at the Crystal palace, where it came to the attention of the Duke of Devonshire who bought it and gave it to the Garrick Club, who incidentally used to use it as a door stop'.
__________
The Description of the Royal Shakespeare Bust from Art UK website
This information regarding the discovery is now unsupportable.
"While workmen were pulling down the remains of the old Duke's
Theatre, built by Sir William D'Avenant in Lincolns Inn Fields, a bust of
Shakespeare was discovered bricked up over a doorway. The bust passed into the
possession of Sir Richard Owen, who sold it to the Duke of Devonshire.
The Duke
had two copies made, and presented the original to the Garrick Club, where it
is to this day. Sir Richard Owen obtained a copy, which he placed in his garden
at Richmond.
After Sir Richard's death, his grandson, the Reverend Richard Owen,
presented this copy to the Shakespeare Memorial Association.
The bust is of a
later date than D'Avenant, and though a fine work of art, cannot be taken as a
likeness".
___________________
The Garrick Club so called Davenant Bust of Shakespeare.
The Photographs here were very kindly provided by Marcus Risdell Curator of the Garrick Club.
The myth of its discovery bricked up in the Duke's Theatre
in Portugal street has been exploded by Marcus Risdell who has discovered
documentary proof that it came from the garden of 39 Portugal Row - the terrace
on the South side of Lincolns Inn Fields.
The 'Davenent bust' - is so called after Sir William
Davenant (1606 - 68) who was the proprietor of the Dukes Theatre in Portugal
Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields 1660 until his death in 1668, (Portugal Street
runs parallel with Portugal Row the South side of Lincolns Inn Fields).
This Communication
below from Marcus Risdell, Curator of Works of Art at the Garrick Club.
'Roubiliac original terracotta bust Garrick Club bust, (rediscovered by William Clift, first curator of the Hunterian Museum) in 1834 (source is Clift's papers held at Royal College of Surgeons) it was found in the garden of No 39 Lincoln's Inn Fields by a water pump in a position I have identified in surveys made by the Royal College of Surgeons to have been right by the main entrance.
It became
known through association of the theatre as the Davenant Bust, but as we now
suspect was sited at the theatre by Henry Giffard who attempted the last
theatrical season there in 1742-43.
Incidentally Giffard also used a full size plaster? statue
of Shakespeare by Scheemakers as a pantomime stage prop at his previous theatre
- at Goodman's Fields, where he first put on Garrick.
This I covered in the catalogue: The Face & Figure of
Shakespeare at Orleans House Gallery. Anyway I digress: the bust passed to
Professor Owen who showed it at the Crystal palace, where it came to the
attention of the Duke of Devonshire who bought it and gave it to the Garrick
Club, who incidentally used to use it as a door stop'.
Not an unusual fate for portrait busts - the 16th century Lumley / Pomfret marble bust of
Henry VIII suffered similar humiliation whilst it was in the Ashmolean Museum
offices, until rescued in the mid 20th century (communication to me by Michael
Vickers).
For more on the Roubiliac busts of Ray, Tyers and Streatfield, see:-
The building was demolished and replaced by a purpose-built
theatre for a third period, 1714–1728.
It was until very
recently believed that at one time this Roubiliac bust had been made in the
17th Century - a story widely promoted is that the bust had originally been
discovered by workmen, during the demolition along with a bust of Ben Jonson in
a niche above the stage door where it had been bricked in after the Theatre had
become a barracks in 1732.
The building later became an Auction room and was opened as
The Salopian China Warehouse in 1783 for Thomas Turner's Caughly porcelain (who
first produced 'Willow Pattern' china. From 1794 - 1847 it was the warehouse of
Copeland and Spode. It was demolished in 1848 to make way for an extension to
the Royal College of Surgeons.(see the following post).
__________________
The British Museum bust of Shakespeare.
by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Height: 57.80 centimetres (max.)
Purchased at the posthumous Roubiliac 4 day sale May 1762 by Matthew Matey at the premises in St Martin's Lane and given to the Museum.
Given that it appears there are no other contemporary examples of the two terracotta
busts (in any material) of Shakespeare by Roubiliac - then this bust is almost
certainly one of the three terracotta busts - either lot 73 or lot 83 on the
second day 13 May 1762, or lot 86 on the Third day 14 May 1762 at the
posthumous Roubiliac Sale held at the Studio in St Martin's Lane by Langfords
of the Piazza Covent Garden.
All the above photographs of the BM bust have been lifted from the British Museum Website.
Sunday, 12 July 2020
The Royal Collection Marble Bust of Alexander Pope
The Royal Collection Marble Bust of Alexander Pope,
after Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Updated.
The Royal collection website has recently updated its photographs of this bust (see below) and these photographs suggest to me that this very competent bust is not by Roubiliac but most probably a later copy. Perhaps by Edward Hodges Bailey.
The cutting of the hair lacks the fine definition of Roubiliac's work - it should be compared with the Yale Centre bust below.
They say "Thought to have been acquired by King George IV, this bust
of Alexander Pope was displayed in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle. The
bust stood alongside other commemorative representations of great historic and
contemporary English figures and it was displayed facing a bust of William
Shakespeare".
I have written at some length about all the 18th century busts of Pope in my parallel blog.
see these and other posts.
Photograph of the Royal Collection Marble bust of Pope by John Wesley Livingston
The same bust from an original 5"x7" glass plate negative of 2 white marble
busts: William, Duke of Devonshire by Nollekins (RCIN 35410), no.76; Alexander
Pope (RCIN 45173), no.77. See Windsor Castle Inventory of Statuary and Busts
(RCIN 1101202).
________________________
The Barber Institute Terracotta bust of Alexander Pope by Roubiliac.
They say c 1738 - my feeling is that it is perhaps slightly later.
The earliest marble bust of Pope is dated 1738, is that at Temple Newsam - it has no provenance prior to 1930.
A terracotta version, which might be this one, is mentioned
in the sale catalogue of the contents of Roubiliac's studio at his late
dwelling house in St Martins Lane by Langford's, Lot 76, third day of sale,
Friday 5 May, 1762 but it is possible that this lot may have been a different
and lost terracotta version of the earlier busts.
According to Kerslake ( Early Georgian Portraits, National
Gallery, 1977) sold to surgeon and collector John Belchier 1706 - 85. (who was also portrayed by
Roubiliac circa 1750 (Royal College of Surgeons.
H 62.1 x W 41 x D 22 cm;
Plinth: H 14.3 x W 20.8 x D 20.9 cm
....................................
The Paul Mellon Centre Marble bust of Alexander Pope.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
1741
This bust was previously owned by Joseph Browne, of
Shepton Mallet and sold before 1791; it then passed to James Bindley and was sold
1819, by Sotheby's (Mr Sotheby), to Watson Taylor of Earlstoke Wiltshire, and sold in 1832 to Sir Robert Peel,
sold again in 1900 in the Peel Heirlooms sale for 510 Guineas to Thos. Agnew
and Son, acting on behalf of the Earl of Roseberry.
Sold Sothebys 1990, £930,000. Now at Yale Centre for the
Study of British Art, New Haven Conn. U.S.A.
Overall: 24 3/4 x 17 x 9 inches (62.9 x 43.2 x 22.9 cm)
Although signed and dated ad vivum 1741, there is an
inscription on the bottom of he bust in the same style, recording the death of Pope at Twickenham on
8th May 1744, suggesting that this bust was carved and completed posthumously
but based on Popes sitting for the terra cotta in 1741.
Pope had visited the studio
of Roubiliac in July of 1741, and reported to Ralph Allen in Bath on the
progress of busts for his library.
Inscribed, chiseled on front of socle: 'POPE'; on proper
left under sitter's shoulder: 'ALEX. POPE. Nats. LONDINI, | die 8o. junii anno
MDCLXXXVIII. | Obiit in vico Twickenham prope | Urbem, die 8o. maii
MDCCXLIV";
Signed and dated by chisel under sitter's shoulder, proper
right: "Anno Dom. | MDCCXLI. | L.F. Roubiliac | Scit. Ad vivum"
The other three signed and dated versions are at Temple Newsam House, Leeds (no provenance before the early 20th century;
the Lord Mansfield version in the Fitzwilliam collection at Milton, Peterborough; and the David Garrick version at Shipley Art
Gallery, Gateshead.
According to tradition, this bust was commissioned by Lord
Bolingbroke, who was a very close acquaintance of Pope, although as far as can
be ascertained there is so far no documented proof of his ownership. It would
seem that Bollingbroke spent most of his time in France between 1739 and 1743.
Notes - There is another link, however between Lord
Bolingbroke, Pope and Roubiliac:
10 February 1738/9. Roubiliac supplied plaster versions of
busts of Pope and Bollingbroke to the Earl of Marchmont ( Victoria &
Albert, National Arts Library, Ms 1578 - 1939. The Household Accounts of Hugh
Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont 1737- 1746. Press No. 1737-1746 National Arts
Library).
Note - The Temple Newsam Marble bust is dated 1738 but the
cutting of the hair is different to this bust - There are no plaster versions
of the Temple Newsam bust that I am aware of.
There two other busts of Pope of unknown material possibly
marble which have not been identified.
1. The Madame Boccage Bust of Alexander Pope. Busts of Pope,
Dryden, Milton and Shakespeare were sent with 3 others to Paris in 1751 by Lord
Chesterfield..
Mrs Esdaile makes a very good case that the four busts for
Mme Boccage’s garden sent to France were Roubiliac marble busts. Mrs Thrale saw
them in her drawing room in 1775
2. Lord Bruce bust of
Alexander Pope. Charles, Lord Bruce,Viscount of Tottenham, d.1747. -Tottenham
Park, Wiltshire. Inventory of 14 Nov.1744. (10 poets heads on painted and gilt
brackets, one ditto Mr Pope).
Charles, Lord Bruce who was a friend of Pope, m. Lady
Julianna Boyle, sister of Lord Burlington in 1720. Burlington provided plans
for Tottenham Park between 1730-40 (drawings at Chatsworth).
The fact that the
Pope bust is particularly noted is instructive. Although not stated as a
Roubiliac marble bust, he is the most likely candidate for its authorship. A
gilt bracket from Tottenham Park is in the V&A.
I know of no other versions by Rysbrack or Scheemakers in
any material which might be this bust. Of course it could have been a plaster
version by Roubiliac.
_____________________________
The British Museum Plaster Bust of Alexander Pope.
Height: 62 centimetres.
Width: 42 centimetres (max.).
Depth: 21.30 centimetres.
Acquired from the posthumous sale of the contents of Roubiliac's studio at St Martins Lane.
Presented by Dr Matthew Maty, 1762, who purchased it at
Roubiliac's sale, either lot 9, first day's sale, 12 May 1762, or lot 3 or lot
14, second day's sale, 13 May 1762, or lot 2, third day's sale, 14 May 1762.
__________________
William Kurtz Wimsatt (1907 - 75).
With the Milton/ Fitzwilliam Bust, the British Museum Bust, the Temple Newsum Bust, the Yale Bust, the Barber Institute Terracotta Bust and the Garrick, Shipley Bust.
................
The Portraits of Alexander Pope, W.K. Wimsatt, Published by Yale University Press, New Haven, 1965
Tuesday, 7 July 2020
Terracotta Bust probably not Allan Ramsay Sotheby's July 2020
A Small 18th Century Terracotta Bust
probably not Allan Ramsay (1713 - 84).
Sotheby's Lot 140 July 2020.
Overall Height 11inches.
Photograph courtesy Sotheby's.
This competant little bust has been trying to escape from the trade for quite a few years.
When I first saw it it was very dirty and it has obviously recently had a thorough clean up.
At the time it was suggested to me that it was a bust of Allan Ramsay.
It is hard to reconcile the attribution given the known self portraits of Ramsay.
This attribution appears to be based on its resemblance to a drawing in the National Gallery of Scotland (see below).
The hollow head suggests to me a French or perhaps Italian sculptor - Rysbrack terracotta heads are usually manufactured in the Netherlands fashion, the are modelled in the solid and so most frequently cracked during the firing process and had to be filled and painted - whereas Roubiliac modelled his heads hollow with an even depth to the clay - far less likely to be damaged in the firing.
Allan Ramsay
Self Portrait aged about 20
Note the cleft in the chin missing in the little terracotta.
They say
This self-portrait was probably drawn while Ramsay was a young
student living in London. He was evidently proud of his appearance and his
attractiveness; he has depicted himself with long locks of hair that flow to
his shoulders. In a poem written by Ramsay, he referred to himself at around
the age he is shown here as ‘Bold Allan ..., all dressed in frock of Blew and
waistcoat of the Lining Green’ aspiring to ‘… take and bear away' the hearts of
girls, 'who eer they were'.
National Galleries of Scotland
_______________________
There is a carved bust of Allan Ramsay of 1776/7 by the Irish sculptor Michael Foye (fl 1765 -77) with the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland - see -
Little is known about the Irish sculptor Michael Foye. He
entered one of Dublin’s art schools - the Dublin Society School in 1765. In
1767 he exhibited two works at the Society of Artists and by 1770 he is known
to be working in the studio of the sculptor, John Van Nost. Two years later he
had travelled to Italy. It is believed he was the ‘Foy’ who sent a ‘bust of an
artist’ from Rome to an exhibition of the Society of Artists.
Allan Ramsay
Incised M: Foye/Sculpt/Rome/177 (the last figure gone), at
one time in the Lockhart Thomson collection.
Purchased by the NPGS in 1905
Height 59.9cms.
Image courtesy Nation Portrait Gallery of Scotland.
_____________________
Allan Ramsay
National Portrait Gallery
1776
11 3/8 in. x 8 1/2 in. (289 mm x 216 mm).
Inscribed in ink on the back of the paper: A. Ramsay. drawn
by himself in the Island of Ischia/August 1776.
This portrait
One of four drawings, the artist's last important work, [1]
done in Ischia c.1776. The other three are portraits of his second wife
inscribed Begun for Mrs Ramsay in the Island of Ischia but not like 1776,
National Gallery of Scotland (293b); his daughter Amelia, and of a country
girl, [2] both formerly in the collection of Sir Bruce Ingram, now respectively
in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery and the Ashmolean Museum.
Under ultra violet light it appears just possible that the last figure of the
date in NPG 1660 has been changed from '5' to '6'. Ramsay is not known to have
visited Ischia in 1775 and although on his way to Italy that year, he was still
in Paris as late as 24 August. [3]
Footnotes
1) A. Smart, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay, 1952, p 157.
2) Exhibited 'British Portraits', RA, 1956-57 (643).
3) A. Smart, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay, 1952, p 156.
_____________________
Allan Ramsay
Self Portrait
Pastel
1755 / 56
National Portrait Gallery of Scotland
see - https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/3531/allan-ramsay-1713-1784-artist-self-portrait
The text below lifted from the NGS website
This vivid and characterful self-portrait is testimony to
the technical skills and aesthetic sensitivity that made Allan Ramsay the first
Scottish artist to rival the best of his contemporaries, not only in England
but also in Continental Europe. The eldest son of the poet of the same name,
Ramsay received his first artistic training at the Academy of St Luke in his
native Edinburgh, where he enrolled as a founder member aged sixteen. Quickly
recognised as possessing outstanding talent in his chosen field of portraiture,
Ramsay was sent to London in 1732 to study at the fashionable studio of the
Swedish-born portrait painter Hans Hysing. Although his stay with Hysing lasted
little over a year, it was most probably there that he developed the basic
skills required for the accurate delineation of physiognomy, drapery and
gesture. The artist’s sights, however, were clearly set on more ambitious means
of securing professional advancement than London could offer. By 1736, with
financial support from his father and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Ramsay was
preparing to visit Italy. This was to be the first of four prolonged study
trips to the Continent, which not only enabled Ramsay to make numerous
influential contacts but also to develop, through close study of paintings by
old master and contemporary artists, his increasingly distinctive and delicate
style of portraiture.
This work almost certainly dates from 1754–7, during the
second of Ramsay’s Italian sojourns. Unusually, Ramsay travelled with his wife,
Margaret Lindsay, and after his arrival in Rome in December 1754 he sought to
escape from the pressures of the social and artistic life of Rome in order ‘to
preserve the greater part of my time for painting, drawing and reading’ (A.
Smart, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay, London 1952, p. 82). It was almost
certainly during this period of seclusion and self-directed study that Ramsay
produced a group of six self-portrait studies. All relate to an oil portrait of
about 1756 (private collection) in which he depicted himself sitting at his
easel, paintbrush in hand, at work on the portrait of a woman, possibly his
wife, his head turned towards the viewer as if interrupted in the middle of his
labours. The present work is the most highly finished of the studies, and the
only one coloured with pastel and watercolour. Nevertheless, the drawing
clearly reflects its status as an intensely observed private study. Without the
flattery or softness with which Ramsay increasingly imbued his commissioned
portraits, it presents a notably frank and naturalistic rendering of the
artist’s features. The handling of the medium is firm, in contrast to the
delicate, almost tentative quality that Ramsay’s drawings often exhibit. The
impression is of patient, almost workmanlike care, providing an exceptionally
direct insight into the artist’s approach to his work.
This text was originally published in Facing the World:
Self-portraits from Rembrandt to Ai Weiwei, Edinburgh, 2016.
________________________
Circa 1737-1739
24 in. x 18 1/4 in. (610 mm x 464 mm) oval
A good version of NPG 3311 with deep red drapery and a pink
turnover, lent by Dr T. Loveday to the Ramsay exhibition of 1958 [1], was
found, after cleaning, to be lettered A. Ramsay Pictor. 1749. Obviously
inscribed rather than signed and dated, the portrait had been in Italy in the
early 19th century. The quality is inferior to NPG 3311 and it lacks the
pentimenti which suggest that the Gallery portrait is the prototype. The date
1749 seems late for the apparent age of the sitter. A copy, framed as a pendant
to a portrait of his first wife, apparently painted at about the time of their
marriage in 1739, is in the collection of W. R. Law. An oil copy in the
Scottish NPG (189) was made by Alexander Nasmyth in 1781 but no date for the
original is given. A drawing in the National Gallery of Scotland (D 2019),
although possibly younger, shows a similar pose; it is perhaps a study for NPG
3311. [2]
Footnotes
1) Exhibited 'Allan Ramsay, 1713-84', Kenwood, 1958 (1);
‘Art Treasures of the West Country', Bristol, 1937 (74), lent by Dr Loveday.
The Loveday family also owned Ramsay's portrait of John Ward (q.v.). Mrs
Goodwin (?1689-1788), whose daughter married into the Loveday family, knew
Ramsay quite well, as she mentions him in letters.
2) K. Andrews and J. R. Brotchie, Catalogue of Scottish
Drawings, National Gallery of Scotland, 1960, p 171.
Physical description
Dark brown eyes and eyebrows, protruding lower lip, chin
slightly cleft, pale complexion, bluish jowl, dark brown hair or wig; white
neck-band and shirt ruffle, rich brown velvet drapery turned down over
shoulder; greyish-brown background; lit from right
Conservation
Flaking in the hair laid; a pentiment along the edge of the
chest and ruffle; surface cleaned and varnished, 1964.
Provenance
Bought, 1946, from Appleby Brothers and by them in Stirling
'a short time before'; believed to have been sold earlier that year from
Dowell's in Edinburgh. [1]
1) Information from A. E. Haswell Miller, NPG archives.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print
National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian
Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, and is as published then. For
the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend
reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this
website in parallel with this text.
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