English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: Oliver Cromwell Marble bust by Joseph Wilton

Oliver Cromwell

Marble Bust.

by Joseph Wilton.

75.5 cms.

Inscribed - Opus Josephi Wilton.

1762.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127087/oliver-cromwell-bust-wilton-joseph-ra/

A terracotta in the V &A is believed to be a cast from this bust rather than a prototype.

Joan Coutu notes three versions of the Wilton marble bust of Cromwell - The Victoria and Albert Museum version, the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon version and the Donnington Park version in the Government Art Collection - see:

Then and Now: Collecting and Classicism in Eighteenth-Century England, by Joan Coutu pub. 2015.

Images above courtesy Victoria and Albert Museum.
_________________________

There is a black painted, plaster version of this bust in store at the Royal Academy.

Watch this space!

_____________________

Oliver Cromwell.

after Joseph Wilton.

Marble Bust

The socle and lack of definition might suggest 19th Century.

Hardwick Hall.

National Trust

______________________

Bust of Cromwell Joseph Wilton

Goverment Art Collection

Oliver Cromwell
Joseph Wilton

Provenance -With Montague Marcussen Limited; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in April 1947

height: 75.00 cm, width: 58.00 cm

Inscribed verso: I. Wilton F:t

Purchased from dealer Montague Marcussen, April 1947.

Last known location - Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall (London, UK)

Presumably the bust from Donington Park noted by Joan Coutu in Then and Now: Collecting and Classicism in Eighteenth-Century England pub 2015.

. mentioned by Horace Walpole at Donington

Walpole also notes a bust of Cromwell by Pearce sold at auction (this fact needs to be verified), in 1714.

Walpole also mentions the bust of Cromwell with the Duke of Grafton in a letter to the Earl of Hartford 5th October 1764. Another version of this bust is in the Bargello, Florence

_______________________

Cromwell

after Wilton

Marble Bust

370 mm

Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire.

National Trust

________________________

Oliver Cromwell
Anon.
Govt. Art Coll.

Presumably the bust attributed to Wilton in Then and Now: Collecting and Classicism in Eighteenth-Century England, Joan Coutu. 2015.

Provenance: With the Arcade Gallery; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in January 1949

Dimensions height: 61.50 cm, width: 52.00 cm, depth: 31.00 cm

Inscribed on base: OLIVER CROMWELL / ANGLIAE &C &C / PROTECTOR

Acquisition : Purchased from Arcade Gallery, January 1949

Most recent known location : British Embassy (The Hague, Netherlands)

______________________