The Rysbrack busts at Longford Castle

The Rysbrack Busts and other Sculpture at Longford Castle, Wiltshire.

Some notes.
see Vertue for list of busts from life

William (Billy Bouverie), later Ist Earl of Radnor (1724 - 1776).
Michael Rysbrack
Height 50.8 cms
Private Collection..

Photograph from Royal Academy Archives.

Originally Huguenots the surname began the eighteenth century as ‘Des Bouverie’, before becoming Anglicised in 1736 to ‘Bouverie’, and then double-barrelled to ‘Pleydell-Bouverie’ in 1748 upon a marriage

For more on the Rysbrack sculpture at Longford see - The key is Locke: Hogarth, Rysbrack and the Foundling Hospital by Katharine Eustace in The British Art Journal.  Vol. 7, No. 2 (Autumn 2006), pp. 34-49.

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see also - available online -  Acquisition, Patronage and Display: Contextualising the Art Collections of Longford Castle during the Long Eighteenth Century: Volume 1: Text Amelia Lucy Rose Smith

Thesis Birkbeck College London.

 http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/230/1/Amelia%20Smith%2012942748%20Full%20version%20Vol1-2017SmithALRphdBBK.pdf

http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/230/2/Amelia%20Smith%2012942748%20Vol2%20Public%20version%20-2017SmithALRphdBBK.pdf

John Michael Rysbrack, Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone

(1694-1761), early-mid eighteenth century, 64.77 x 53.34 cm,

white marble.

Sir Edward Bouverie (1688-1736), John Michael Rysbrack,early/ mid eighteenth century, 61.6 x 57.15 cm, white marble.

William Bouverie, later 1st Earl of Radnor (1724-1776), Attributed to John Michael Rysbrack, early-mid eighteenth century, 49.53 x 38.1 cm, white marble, 

Bust of Sir Mark Stuart Pleydell (c.1693-1768),  1755,

Louis-François Roubiliac,54.99 cm, marble, National Trust, on long-term loan to

the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Harriot Pleydell (1723-1750) and William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor (1724-1776), 

Possibly by John Michael Rysbrack, mid eighteenth century, 19.69 x 16.51 cm, wax.

 Flora, 1759, John Cheere, dimensions unknown, lead,

Longford Castle

10th March 1756 bought Scheemaker’s Busto of a Vestal Virgin at

Langford’s.

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Sculpture Related Expenditure transcribed from the Longford Castle Account Books 1723 -1828.

from -

http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/230/1/Amelia%20Smith%2012942748%20Full%20version%20Vol1-2017SmithALRphdBBK.pdf

16th February 1727.  Mr. Horsnaile a Stonecutter near St. Andrews  Church £17.16.6 for a chimney piece &c.

17th October 1737. Mr. White-head Mr. Mansfield the [stucco?] - mans. foreman at bill £21.9.6

Payed Mr. Whitehead for a couple of Bustos in stucco  £3.3.0.

28th April 1738. Mr. Rysbrack a bill for two chimney-pieces &c. £57.14.0

27th November 1739. Mr. Rysbrack money on acct. June 7 1739 £150.0.0

19th December 1739. Mr. Rysbrack more on account 200.0.0

17th March 1740. Mr. Carter at Hyde-Park Corner for a chimneypiece, £70:10:0 

19th April 1740 Mr. Leemin? in St. Martin’s Lane a bill for Terms, Pedestalls, &c £22.18.6

26th November 1741. Cheere the statuary on acct. of Chimney-pieces £200.0.0

7th May 1740 Mr. Rysbrack wth £150- on acct. 7th June, £200 

do. 19th Decr, in full for a bill of £436:15:0 £ 86.15.0

5th April 1742. Mr. Cheere on acct. of chimney-pieces &c £100.0.0 

6th April 1742. Mr. Cheere more on acct. (NB £400 in all) £100.0.0

8th April 1743. Mr. Chere wth. £400 payed before, in full for a bill of £805:10:0 for chimney-pieces & tops &c. £405:10:0 

14th April 1743. Cheere at Hyde-Park-Corner for 3 plaister Bustos bronz’d & cases £3.10.6

(NB at John Cheere at Hyde Park Corner).

20th December 1743 Mr. Cheere the stonecutter a bill for altering ye. drawing-room chimney £27.1.0

13 April 1745. (for the Gallery) The Chimney-Piece & Billy’s busto £266.15.0 (see Illustration above)

Two Bustos & Pedestalls (the marble of the Pedestalls given me) £113.0.0 

10th March 1756. Scheemaker’s Busto of a Vestal Virgin £11.0.6

at Langford’s D[itt]o of the Zingara bought at d[itt]o  £17.6.6

2nd January 1759. Mr. [Alker?] for six stone Terms at £8:8:0 each (probably Sefferin Alken 1712 - 82 of St James Westminster. In Mortimer’s Director for 1763 lists Alken as a ‘Carver in Wood and Stone’ giving his address as ‘Dufour’s-court, Broad-Street, near Golden Square’.

see -  http://liberty.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=29&from_list=true&x=3

also - https://bifmo.data.history.ac.uk/entry/alken-sefferin-1744-83  ) 50.8.0

2nd January 1759. Mr. Devall for the Portland stone for d[itt]o at £3:3:0 each 18.18.0.
Probably John Devall II.

see - http://liberty.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=781&from_list=true&x=1

2nd January 1759. Mr. Cheere for ye. statues of Flora & [Anna] Augusta at £8:8:0 each, oyling, painting, & packing cases £19.15.0. (obviously lead statues from John Cheere of Hyde Park Corner).

2nd January 1759. Mr. Parisons (Parsons of Widcombe, Bath) for two vases from Bath packing cases &c

April 1767 - Purchased at Rysbrack's sale Fame £59.0.0.

26th June 1767. Vanderhagen, Statuary for a Bust of Alfred £7.0.0. (Vanderhagen assistant to Roubiliac see my blog post - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015_11_11_archive.html
This price would assume that it was made of marble)

13th April 1771. Wilton Statuary for a Marble Bust of Alfred etc £51.18.0

12th August 1769. Parsons (of Bath) a Bill for Stone Vases £19.12.0

1st May 1775. Scheemaker Statuary £9.2.0

6th June 1775 Scheemaker Statuary £2.19.6

12th June 1775 Chere Statuary (Presumably John Cheere for lead) Figures sent to Longford £50.0.0

16th December 1778 Scheemaker Statuary of Balance of his Bill (vide July 28. 1777) £18.4.0

16th December Ditto for Monument erected to the Revd. Mr  Langhorne of Folkestone £23.12.6

14 May 1779 Devall Statuary balance of Account for Family Monument at Britford Church ([vide?] Janry. 16.

1777) £141 10. 0

1780 Mr Devall Statuary for Chimney-Peice for the Long Parlour Longford Castle £66 13 6d

Parlour Longford Castle Etc

19th Feb 1785 Scheemakers Statuary £3.16. 0

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The 1st Earl took a particular interest in constitutional history going back to King Alfred the Great (849-899). In 1767, he bought a statue of Fame by the sculptor John Michael Rysbrack for the garden at Longford, and commissioned the artist’s pupil, Gaspar Van der Hagen (d.1769), to add a depiction of Alfred to the medallion held by Fame, 62 providing an interesting example of a work of art being refashioned in line with the family’s personal tastes and interests.

For more on Van der Hagen see my blog post -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-rysbrack-statuettes-of-rubens-van_55.html

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Monument to Harriet Pleydell died 29 May 1750.

Michael Rysbrack

Coleshill Church.
Berkshire

daughter of Sir Mark Pleydell, Wife of William Bouverie, Earl of Radnor.

From - http://www.berkshirehistory.com/churches/coleshill_hbouverie.html