English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: Isaac James, Nicholas Stone and Hendrick de Keyser and their Contemporaries

Polychrome Portrait Busts in the 16th and Early 17th Century.
Isaac James (d. c.1625), Nicholas Stone (1586 - 1647) and

Hendrick de Keyser (1565 -1621).

and some Contemporaries.

A few random jottings - a work in progress.
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This research came about from a project suggested to me by Dana Josephson to investigate the anonymous polychrome stone bust of Thomas Bodley, the bronze bust of Charles I by Hubert le Seuer, Dr Richard Frewin by Roubiliac and several other important busts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

This project will also research the busts from the Bodleian Library, The Radcliffe Camera and Christchurch College, Oxford.

It is the aim of this work tocontinue the study of the sculpture in the Bodleian put together in the "Catalogue of the Portraits in the Bodleian Library by Kenneth Garlick, pub. 2004".

Garlick continues the work commenced by Mrs Reginald Lane Poole in Vol. 1 of Catalogue of Oxford Portraits (pub. Oxford 1912).

A low resolution photograph of the Bodleian Library looking West.
The bust of Sir Thomas Bodley in the niche on the left and the bust of Charles I on the right
Photograph Circa 1902.

Alamy Library Photograph of about 1920 of the Bodleian Library
showing the bust of Sir Thomas Bodley put up in 1605.

TheSurround with a niche for the bust were probably put up in the 18th century - strangely it is quite different from the surround to le Seuers bust of Charles I

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Scan of a photograph of the Plaster bust of Sir Thomas Bodley.

from

"Catalogue of the Portraits in the Bodleian Library by Kenneth Garlick, pub. 2004"

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Some notes on the London Tomb Sculptor Isaac James fl. 1600 still living 1625/5.
described as tomb maker in contemporary contracts.

Was in partnership with Bartholomew Atye (d.1616) 1600 - 02.

Married Anna Manjet at the Dutch Church, Austin Friars April 1603.

His possible master a Brabanter named Richard Stevens (1542 - 92) of Southwark. info Whinney this is questioned by Adam White - there is no current evidence - but certainly a possibility given the Dutch connections and possible family home in Southwark.

He was living in the Parish of St Martin in the Fields by 1600 and appears in the Parish Rate Books from 1601 - 1624 - 25, listed under the Waterside Ward - close to the sculptor William Ward.

Descended from James van Hawstert (Haastrecht a town near Gouda) who came to England in the reign of Henry VIII.

Father perhaps William James an inhabitant of the Parish of St Mary Overy, Southwark, who retained strong Dutch connections - his will drawn up in Dec. 1595, proved the next year mentions a son Isaac a brother in law in Delft and a cousin called Roger (van Haestrecht?) and mentions a bequest to the congregation of the Dutch Church at Austin Friars.

A probable descendant of dutch immigrant James van Hewstert (a corruption of Haastrecht).

Documented works of Isaac James -

1. 1600 - 1 Sir Edward Denny and his wife, Waltham Abbey, Essex in partnership with Bartholemew Adye.

2. 1601 - 2 Sir Richard Kingsmill Highclere, Hampshire, with in partnership with Bartholemew Adye.

3. c.1611 Henry Lord Norris and family, Westminster Abbey

4. 1613 - 14 Sir Thomas Walmesley, wife and son Thomas St Mary, Blackburn (destroyed)

5. 1614 - 16 Henry Earl of Northampton Formerly St Mary in Castro, Dover, dismantled and partly lost. with Nicholas Stone the Elder

Above info from A Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors - c 1560 - c. 1660. by Adam White, Walpole Society Journal, 1999.

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Nicolas Stone 1586? - 1647.

see - A biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors. c.1560 - c. 1660. Adam White. Walpole Society Journal 1999

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Hendrick de Keyser (1565 - 1621).
Dutch Architect and Sculptor.
Various spellings.
Henri de Keyser, Hendrick de Kayser, Hendick de Keiser etc.

His Portrait Busts - a few random notes.

Master of Nicholas Stone. 1606 - 1613.
May 1613 Nicholas Stone marries Mayken (Mary) dughter of Hendrick de Keyser.

The most up to date study of the career of de Keyser is by probably that by Charles Avery in
Studies in European Sculpture pub. Christie's 1981. which concentrates on the production of his bronzes

Hendrick de Keyser
Johannes Meyssens
engraving 1662
162 x 113 mm.

Hendrick de Keyser
engraving
Jonas Suyderhof after T de Keyser
with a dedication by the poet Joost van den Vondel - (1587 - 1679).
Vondel wrote many satires criticising the Calvanists and extolling the virtues of Oldenbarnevelt
(see below bust of Oldenbarnevelt).
1621.

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Hendrick de Keyser

For the visit to Lodon which took place in 1606, not 1607 as sometimes stated, see Elisabeth Neurdenberg, Herndrick de Keyser, 1930, p.7. I am very grateful to Adam White for this information.

Terracotta
72.5 cms
Rijksmuseum

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Bust of Piet Heyn (d.1628).

Attrib to Hendrik de Keyser II

terracotta

Height 80 cms.

Rijksmuseum.

Piet Heyn became a seaman at a young age. When he was fifteen years old, he was taken prisoner by the Spanish and made to serve two years as a galley slave. After his release, Heyn pursued a career in the merchant marine: he held high-ranking positions in the Dutch West India Company. In 1628 he captured a Spanish treasure fleet (known as the ‘Silver Fleet’) off the coast of Cuba. A year later he perished at sea.

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Currently described by the Rijksmuseum as Vincent Coster
1608.
by Hendrick de Keyser
Marble
Height 75 cms.
Rijksmuseum

William I, Prince of Orange
Hendrick de Keyser
Workshop?
Terracotta
78cms
c. 1615 - 20
Rijksmuseum

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Jan de Bisschop

Drawing of the Bust of Pieter Adriaenz van der Werff (1529 - 1603)

after Hendrick de Keyeser ( bust disappeared).

Pen and brown ink over black chalk

212 x 133 mm

Sotheby's Amsterdam. lot 122, - 29 April 2014.

http://www.sothebys.com/fr/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.420.html/2014/gustav-leonhardt-collection-l14307

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Johann van Oldenbarnevelt

Terracotta

Rijksmuseum

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The Bacon Family Terracotta Busts

Gorhambury Park, St Albans.

Sir Nicholas Bacon

Terracotta

c.1566

Lady Ann Bacon

terracotta

c.1566

Anthony Bacon?

Anonymous Sculptor

Terracotta.

c.1566.

There is some dispute as to whether this bust represents Anthony or his younger brother Francis

Gorhambury

see - https://www.fbrt.org.uk/pages/bacon_history.html

I have contacted the agents for Gorhambury.

The busts are currently in store and will not be available for inspection for about 18 months.

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Johan (Jan) Gregor van der Schardt (1530 - 81).

Johan (or Jan) Gregor van der Schardt (Nijmegen, Netherlands, c. 1530/31 – Denmark, after 1581) was a sculptor of the Dutch Renaissance.

He toured Italy in the 1560s (working in Bologna) and was in the service of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna from 1569 to 1576, whilst also taking commissions in Nuremberg, where he specialised in painted terracotta busts, including a self-portrait of about 1573, one of the earliest such by a sculptor.

After 1576 he moved to the royal court of Denmark (with a return to Nuremberg in 1579) where he is presumed to have worked during the 1580s and died in the early 1590s,[2] perhaps at Uraniborg on 30 November 1591.

Unusually for a non-Italian artist, his work was praised by Giorgio Vasari.

Johan Gregor van der Schardt

c. 1570 - 90.

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Anonymous Man

Johan Gregor van der Schardt

Bode Museum, Berlin.

Self Portrait

Schardt

Rijksmuseum.

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Anna Imhoff

Bode Museum, Berlin

Willibald Imhoff the Elder.

Schardt

Terracotta

Bode Museum, Berlin.

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Bust of a young girl

Terracotta

Height 41.5 cms approx

Provenance Francis Richard 10th Earl of Wemyss, Scotland

Jaques Seligman &Co

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan 1906.

They say the work is similar to the bust in the Louvre attributed to Claude Arnoux called Lulier active (1545 - 1578). It has been suggested that it is by Schardt by Jorg Rasmussen in 1975.

Morgan Library and Musum, New York.