The Busts of Oliver Cromwell Part 7.The Huntington Marble Bust perhaps from Langley Park by Michael Rysbrack

Updated July 2024.

The Langley Park Bust of Oliver Cromwell.

and three further busts.

In the past I tentatively suggested that these busts are those now at

The Huntington Library. San Marino, California.

I have already posted at some length on the Huntington Busts and two 19th century busts of Cromwell once attributed to Roubiliac, see -

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/11/bust-of-cromwell-by-roubiliac-at.html

For the Huntington Library.

see - https://www.huntington.org/

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Langley Park, Loddon, Norfolk.

The first published reference to a marble bust of Cromwell by Roubiliac.

A bust of Oliver Cromwell by Roubiliac is referred to in A General History of the County of Norfolk, edited by John Chambers, pub. 1829.

On page 845 - in the entry on Langley Park it refers to "Four colossal busts of  William II, George I, Hampden, and Oliver Cromwell - Roubiliac on termes of curious Alabaster Fiorito Marble" in the Central Division of the Garden Gallery. 

(The attribution here to Roubiliac is a mistake).

Langley Park was was originally built c.1730 for Richard Berney, on 25 hectares (60 acres) of land that until the Dissolution of the Monasteries belonged to Langley Abbey. It was sold a few years later to George Proctor, who commissioned Matthew Brettingham to remodel the building. In 1744, the estate was inherited by Proctor's nephew, Sir William Beauchamp who, in compliance with his uncle's will, changed his name to Beauchamp-Proctor and who was created a baronet the following year. The family later changed their name to Proctor-Beauchamp. He completed the building work and employed Lancelot Brown to advise on the landscaping.

For further information on Langley see - https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001008

For the bookcase from the library at Langley and further information see - 

https://apter-fredericks.com/product/an-important-george-ii-mahogany-bookcase-from-langley-park-norfolk/

Langley Park, Norfolk.

Old Photograph showing two of the four busts.

The bust of Cromwell and the bust of William III

19th/20th Century photograph showing two (Cromwell and William III?) of the four busts mentioned in a General History....... 1829.

 "Four colossal busts of  William II, George I, Hampden, and Oliver Cromwell.

in which these busts are attributed to Roubiliac.

This is obviously a case of mistaken identity- the bust of Cromwell is perhaps the Rysbrack now at the Huntington would appear to be the bust on the left in the 19th/20th Century photograph above, but close comparison with the photograph above suggests that although very close it is most likely to be the missing bust of Cromwell probably by Laurence Anderson Holme, which follows the form of the Rysbrack bust particularly in the hair and armour

The bust on the right would appear to be the bust of William III also aftyer Rysbrack.

More research work is needed, but it would seem too much of a coincidence that versions of three of the busts from Langley Park - Cromwell, Hampden, and if I am correct the full bottom wigged William III are now those busts at the Huntington Library.

I have tried contacting the library at the Huntington but with limited success. I have obtained photographs of the Terracotta bust of Milton (for a future post on the three dimensional representations of Milton) and of the Roubiliac plaster bust of Handel, but good photographs of Cromwell, Hampden and the putative William III have so far  remained elusive - I will try again!

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The Huntington Library Cromwell from their website.

http://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/4874/oliver-cromwell?ctx=2804997e-62dd-4fbb-a9e3-7d2cc377f99d&idx=2

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John Hampden.

Michael Rysbrack.

Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

see also the version in Portland Stone in the Temple of Worthies at Stowe Buckinghamshire:

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/temple-of-british-worthies-at-stowe.html

Photograph above from

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/buildings/35420629/in/album/415693

For more on the Huntington Busts and the fire damage incurred on 17 October 1985

including that to the marble of Cromwell, the terracotta of Milton, the Plaster of Handel, and Marble of Sir Peter Warren.

see -

http://www.conservation-us.org/resources/disaster-response-recovery/jaic/account-of-huntington-library-and-gallery#.XAPM_Wj7SUk

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Unidentified bust at the Huntington Library.

Here suggested as William III by Michael Rysbrack.

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I have not yet had the opportunity to inspect this bust at close quarters but a cursory glance at these photographs would suggest that it has undergone some vicissitudes - the eyebrows are particularly telling - perhaps incurred after the fire damage of 1985.

Images above from Flkr.


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Oliver Cromwell

Marble Bust.

Height 63.5 cms.

Lot 356 - 26, January 2012.

Now known to be the bust sold by Sothebys in Italy

Sotheby's, New York.

Provenance: Sue Erpf van Bovenkamp

Sotheby's describe this bust as workshop of Rysbrack.

There is no further information.

It is hard to reconcile this attribution with the known versions of the Rysbrack bust -

see the unsigned or dated Lyttleton terracotta at the National Maritime Museum, the Queens House, Greenwich. This terracotta was presumably the bust Lot 61 sold in the Rysbrack sale of 14 Feb 1767

see -

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/01/terracotta-bust-of-oliver-cromwell-by.html

and the Rysbrack bronze of Cromwell in a private collection.

see -

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/02/bronze-bust-of-oliver-cromwell-by.html

But the attribution to Rysbrack should certainly not be dismissed out of hand; George Vertue mentions a bust of Cromwell in Rysbrack's studio in 1732.

see - Walpole Society Journal.

A pair of giltwood wall brackets from Langley Park were sold by Sotheby's, 10 October 1969, lot 103. Lots 97 and 102 in this sale were also from Langley Park.

An ebonized and gilded bracket of similar scrollwork, but without a mask, and also from Langley Park, was sold at Christie's, Thursday 24 April 1980, lot 104.

  See https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O112521/bracket-unknown/

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Langley Park, Loddon, Norfolk.

A few notes and images.

Langley Park.

Elevation.

John Sanderson, active 1730–died 1774, 

1757.

Pen and black, brown, and gray ink with gray wash and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper bar scale of 1/8 inch to 1 foot.

 28.7 x 46.2 cm

Inscribed in pen and black ink, center, bar scale labeled "0" to "10" and "10" to "80", Signed and dated in pen and brown ink, lower left: "J. Sanderson 1757"

An original drawing from drawing from Yale Centre for British Art

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3628054

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The South Front at Langely House. 

John Sanderson, active 1730–died 1774.

ca. 1750.

Pen and black, brown and grey ink with grey and brown wash over graphite on medium, moderately textured, beige laid paper bar scale of 3/16 inch to 1 foot

Dimensions

Sheet (with flier)37.3 × 55.6 cm.

Inscribed in graphite and pen and black and brown ink, throughout, dimensions given and elevation labeled; bar scale labeled; inscribed on verso in pen and black ink, center: "No 61 - Plan of an [...] South Front at Langley House", Watermark.

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3658525
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Langley Hall was built in the 1730s for Richard Berney on land previously belonging to Langley Abbey. It would appear to have been built on a virgin site, according to an undated map of c 1730 (private collection) which shows only enclosed fields in the area. The Hall was laid out with 9 acres (c 3.75ha) of gardens, a 25ha park, and axial avenues radiating north and south. The estate was purchased in 1738 by George Proctor who commissioned Matthew Brettingham to remodel the Hall. In 1745 the estate passed to Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor who completed the building work and, in 1765, commissioned Lancelot Brown (1716-83) to advise on the landscape.

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Langley Park, Loddon, Norfolk.

For the Proctor Beauchamp families and Langley Park see -

https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2022/03/509-beauchamp-later-beauchamp-proctor.html

Photographs below from

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101306509-langley-park-school-langley-with-hardley/photos/23801#.XGFXAVz7SUl


For a potted history see also -

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1001008

The Saloon.

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Diana and Acteon.

Plaster Work by Charles Stanley.

c. 1740.

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A pair of lead figures here attributed to John Cheere

These low resolution images from:

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5892830
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The Library at Langley Park c 1927 - 

note the magnificent ceiling by Charles Stanley, and the chimneypiece perhaps by Sir Henry Cheere.

For further photographs of this magnificent house (a school since 1948) see -

https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101306509-langley-park-school-langley-with-hardley/photos#.XGFU_lz7SUk

The Saloon at Langley Park.

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The Langley Park Rysbrack Bust of George I is currently unaccounted for.

Presumably it is a version of the terracotta in the National Portrait Gallery.

George I
Michael Rysbrack
Terracotta.

Terracotta bust, 24 ¾ in. high (629 mm); incised pupils, hair curled in Roman manner, crowned with laurel; lion armour, drapery clasped by a circular brooch on his right shoulder.

Rysbrack gave a list of his work to Vertue including a 'K. George 1. a Marble'. Vertue noted, 1732, 'the King did not actually set', [4] but it is not clear whether the type is posthumous or perhaps after another portrait. Rysbrack came to London in the autumn of 1720 and his reputation was such as to have justified important commissions from about 1723. A marble bust similar to NPG 4156, but with Garter star, was in the Hall at Christ Church, Oxford, by 1766, [5] and a whole length version, in marble, in the Squire Law Library, Cambridge, was ordered in 1736 and erected in 1739. [6] Another statue, erected in the Royal Exchange, was last recorded as sold, damaged, after the fire of 1838. [7] Two marble medallions by Rysbrack are now lost.

Collections: bought, 1960, from Roger Warner and by him, 1959, from the Poulett collection, Hinton St George [10] where its identity had been lost. Identified by the late Mrs M.I. Webb, it may be one of the models that remained in Rysbrack's studio, recorded in the catalogue of his sale, 24 January 1766, lot 41, or 25 January 1766, lot 33

Refs:

4. Vertue, III, p.56.

5. Poole, III, p.50 (127).

6. Webb, pp.161-63, 216; Goodison, pp.22-23, pl.viii.

7. Webb, p.216.

8. Ibid; sale catalogue 20 April 1765, lots 16 and 17.

9. Rysbrack to Sir Edward Littleton, 6 May 1768; Webb, p.200.

10. Sale of furnishings, Wooley & Wallis, Salisbury.

11. Webb, p.161.

Info and photograph from NPG

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02447/King-George-I

Although this bust is dated 1760, it is a late, probably workshop version of a bust Rysbrack executed in 1738. It is likely to have been produced to commemorate the King shortly after his death.

Rysbrack produced two busts of George II in 1738, one in terracotta and another in marble, which are both in the Royal Collection at Windsor.

Victoria ad Albert Museum.


https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O249019/george-ii-bust-rysbrack-john-michael/