George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney. (1666 - 1737).
by Michael Rysbrack (1694 - 1770).
Marble Bust.
I am very grateful to Andreas Pampoulides of Lullo Pampoulides for allowing me to photograph this bust.
I have posted before on this bust but with appearance of this Rysbrack masterpiece at the Masterpiece Fair I felt it was a good opportunity to update.
Photographs by the author with i phone on the stand of Lullo - Pampoulides at the Masterpiece Fair London.
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Field Marshall George Hamilton (1666 - 1737).
First Earl of Orkney .
Anonymous
Oil on canvas
Measurements:
214.00 x 144.80 cm
(framed: 238.76 x 170.18 x 5.08 cm)
National Galleries of Scotland.
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Field Marshall George Hamilton (1666 - 1737).
First Earl of Orkney .
Martin Maingaud
1724
Oil on canvas.
H.127 x W 102 cm
Accession number 13420
purchased from dealer Roy Miles, 1977.
Government Art Collection
Provenance - Collection of George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney (1666-1737) Field Marshal;
by descent to [the sitter's son-in-law] William McWilliam O'Brien, 4th Earl of Inchiquin (1700-1777);
Sold through Christie's, London, on 4 June 1976 (Lot 168); with dealer Roy Miles; from whom purchased by the Department of the Environment in July 1977.
Government Art Collection.
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George Hamilton Earl of Orkney
Martin Maingaud
c.1724
Oil on canvas.
c.1724
Oil on canvas.
H 126 x W 101.3 cm
Accession number
NAM. 1961-08-27
purchased from S. T. Dent, 1961.
National Army Museum
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27
Engraving Houbraken
After Maingaud
1742
Measurements: 41.00 x 23.80 cm;
platemark: 27.30 x 23.20 cm.
Image courtesy National Galleries of Scotland.
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Field Marshall George Hamilton,
First Earl of Orkney (1666 - 1737).
20.40 x 12.00 cm;
Platemark: 10.20 x 9.50 cm.
Image courtesy National Galleries of Scotland
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Wikipedia provides a useful short biography
for an in depth article on the bust see -
The British Augustan oligarchy in portraiture: Michael
Rysbrack and his bust of the Earl of Orkney
by David Wilson in The British Art Journal. Vol. 11, No. 2 (2010/11), pp. 43-61.
Available on line free if you sign up.
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Another great bust sold recently by London dealers Lullo - Pampoulides
Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke (and 6th Earl of
Montgomery), FRS.
Louis Francois Roubiliac
Circa
1749
Depicted facing to sinister; on an integral square
marble socle carved with the Pembroke coat of arms and inscribed ‘VNG. GP.
SERVERAY’.
24 5/8 in. (62.5 cm.) high 32¼ in. (82 cm.) high overall, including
socle
Provenance:
Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, by descent to his
son
Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke;
Placed on the monument to the 9th Earl of Pembroke in
St. Mary’s Church, Wilton, Wiltshire, before 3 July, 1754 (when seen by Dr.
Richard Pococke)
The bust and parts of the monument moved to the new
Church of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Wilton, Wiltshire in 1845;
Bust sold (following the grant by the church court of
a faculty for removal) by
17th Earl of Pembroke (heir-at-law of the 9th Earl of
Pembroke, and therefore owner of the bust) in 1997 (via Christie's) to
Professor Ian Craft, by whom sold, 2005, to
Private Collection, London.
Exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
in the Sculpture in Britain Galleries since 2005.
Sold by Lullo - Pampoulides to a private collector, USA.
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Extract from the Christies Sale Catalogue. Lot 83, 2nd December 1997.
Three versions of the present bust are known. The
other two, one of which is paired by a bust of the Earl's wife, Mary, the
eldest daugher of Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, are at Wilton House. Although
none is signed, their attribution to Roubiliac has not been doubted since they
were first discussed by Mrs. Esdaile in her monograph on the sculptor, where
she also referred to a terracotta model of the bust of the Earl in the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, bearing a modern inscription, 'Roubilliac [sic]
fec.' (Esdaile, loc. cit.).
More recently, archival research has revealed that
Roubiliac received £165 and a halfpenny in 1751 from the executors of the 9th
Earl for his monument, of which the present bust formed a part (Bindman and
Baker, loc. cit.).
It would appear, however, that the bust may not originally
have been intended for the monument, but was more probably an independent portrait
subsequently enlisted for the task. It was, in any event, certainly in place as
early as 3 July 1754, when it was described by Richard Pococke as having the
form of 'a marble bust as against a pyramid' (Pococke, loc. cit.).
The original
form of the monument was considerably modified when it was transferred from the
chancel of the old medieval church at Wilton in 1845 to its present location in
the new church.
The bust has now been replaced by a replica.
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The Terracotta at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Currently the best photograph available.
Currently the best photograph available.
Notes.
height, whole, 23.0, in
Acquisition: bequeathed; 1816; Fitzwilliam, Richard, 7th Viscount
Provenance:
Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, FRS
(1693-1749/50; Countess of Pembroke, his widow; ? ; Richard, 7th Viscount
Fitzwilliam of Merrion (d. 1816)
Notes(s):
The 9th Earl of
Pembroke married Mary Fitzwilliam in 1733 , sister of the 6th Viscount
Fitzwilliam, whose heir, Richard, was the founder of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
In The Life and Works of
François Roubiliac.London: Oxford University Esdaile, Katharine A.. 1928.Pressp. p. 91.
Ref. p. 91, note 4, says the inscription 'Roubilliac
[sic] fec' is modern. 'The model passed first to the Countess's family, then to
Cambridge along with the Hercules (pl: XIII b and now atrributed to Rysbrack
R.A.B.) and the antique head of Agrippina with a pedestal by Roubiliac
(Arnold's Library of the Fine Arts iv, 183, p. 1840).' The marble bust, for
which this was the model, and that of the Countess are at Wilton in the church;
there is another of Lord Pembroke in Wilton House, and one at the Birmingham
City Museum and Art Gallery. Mr Gunnis's records there is a bill from Roubiliac
for the bust in the church
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The bust when in Wilton Church.
There was originally a marble pyramid and urn on it at
one time which has since disappeared - probably when the medieval church was remodelled in 1845.
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