English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: Busts of Oliver Cromwell Part 5. The Terracotta Bust by Michael Rysbrack

The Terracotta Bust of Oliver Cromwell

by Michael Rysbrack.

At the Queen's House Greenwich.

Some notes and images.

Head-and-shoulders terracotta bust of Oliver Cromwell, bare-headed, in armour decorated with a Medusa head on the cuirass. This is one of eight busts of British worthies made by Rysbrack for Sir Edward Littleton's new house, Teddesley Hall near Stafford (now demolished), when he was furnishing it in neo-classical style. They essentially comprised four pairs: Raleigh (SCU0043) and Bacon (SCU0005), Shakespeare and Pope, Cromwell and Milton, and Newton and Locke. Lord Hatherton consigned these (excluding Shakespeare) and other Rysbracks that his ancestor had purchased, with the related Rysbrack letters about them, to Spink's for exhibition and sale in July 1932. The three busts now in the Museum were purchased for it there by Sir James Caird. This one is probably based on various portraits of Cromwell by Robert Walker, with the 'gorgoneion' on the cuirass drawn from classical sources as a sign of immortality.

Text above from National Maritime Museum Website.

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/63955.html

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The Rysbrack busts were sold on behalf of Lord Hatherton, of Stafford who was a Littleton and whose ancestor Sir Edward Littleton who had bought this and 7 other Rysbrack busts for Teddesly Hall. Stafford now demolished.

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The Rysbrack Busts from Hatherton at the National Maritime Museum.

"three now being in the NMM - made by Rysbrack for Sir Edward Littleton, for Teddesley Hall, his new house near Stafford (now demolished), which he was furnishing in the neo-classical style.

They essentially comprised four pairs: Raleigh and Bacon, Shakespeare and Pope, Cromwell and Milton, and Newton and Locke. Lord Hatherton (the Littleton barony dating from 1835) consigned these -excluding Shakespeare- and other Rysbracks that his ancestor had purchased, with the related Rysbrack letters about them, to Spink's for exhibition and sale in July 1932.

Spink's related illustrated catalogue by Mrs Arundell Esdaile ('The Art of John Michael Rysbrack in Terracotta') fully transcribes the letters and is otherwise comprehensive.

The Cromwell may date to as early as 1732, when Vertue saw one of him in Rysbrack's workshop.

Previous Museum notes identify that of Pope as possibly 1735 and in the National Portrait Gallery; Milton as 1738, now at Stourhead (based on Rysbrack's Westminster Abbey monument and another bust done for William Benson); Newton (1739), now at Trinity College, Cambridge; Locke (1755?) in the Royal Collection.

That of Shakespeare is unlocated but the V&A has one that may at least be a version. Raleigh and Bacon were conceived as a pair and the most expensive at 25 guineas each, though the sources for the Raleigh are not certain and it was not started until the Bacon had been sent off in June 1757: the others were all 16 guineas.

These two, with the Cromwell, were purchased for the Museum at Spink's by Sir James Caird.

In 1930 he had already bought from Hatherton, also through Spink, Hogarth's portrait of Inigo Jones, which Sir Edward Littleton had commissioned as another British notable".

Text above lifted from the National Maritime Museum.

see - http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/63984.html

NB. The text from the above needs revising and now cannot be relied on!!

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For the Rysbrack terracotta bust of Milton now at the Fitzwilliam see -

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/terracotta-of-milton-by-rysbrack.html

For more on contemporary portraits of Cromwell see -

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41829552?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

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All the photographs above taken by the author under difficult circumstances.

I was hampered by the lighting and the fact that the bust is in a perspex case.

See my previous blog post for a few notes on the Rysbrack bronze busts of Cromwell and Newton.

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2017/11/fitzwilliam-museum-rysbrack-bronze-bust.html

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Here attributed to Gaspar van der Hagen.

Oliver Cromwell, Inigo Jones, John Milton and William Shakespeare.

Four Ivory Reliefs.

Each 11.5cms high.

Sold Christies, London.

Lot 68 8th July 2010.

Three of the reliefs are after busts by Rysbrack while the fourth - of Shakespeare - is derived from the full-length marble executed by Rysbrack's contemporary, Peter Scheemakers, for the playwright's monument in Westminster Abbey.

Another set of four oval ivory reliefs - portraits of Milton, King Alfred, Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell were sold at Sotheby's London, 8 December 1988, lots 398-401.