Two Formerly Anonymous Busts of Oliver Cromwell.
Update.
A Marble Bust sold Sotheby's 26 January 2012.
Possibly the bust by Rysbrack seen in the Rysbrack studio in 1732 by George Vertue.
and a Terracotta now attributed by me to Francis Harwood at the National Portrait Gallery.
Some notes in the course of preparation.
Possibly the bust by Rysbrack seen in the Rysbrack studio in 1732 by George Vertue.
and a Terracotta now attributed by me to Francis Harwood at the National Portrait Gallery.
Some notes in the course of preparation.
Oliver Cromwell
Marble
Height 63.5 cms.
Lot 356 - 26, January 2012.
Sotheby's, New York.
Provenance: Sue Erpf van Bovenkamp
Sotheby's describe this bust as workshop of Rysbrack.
There is no further information in the catalogue.
It is hard to reconcile this attribution with the known
versions of the Rysbrack bust -
see the unsigned or dated Littleton terracotta at the
National Maritime Museum, the Queens House, Greenwich. This terracotta bust was
presumably the bust Lot 61 sold in the Rysbrack sale of 14 Feb 1767.
see -
But - the attribution to Rysbrack should not be dismissed out of
hand, George Vertue mentions a bust of Cromwell in Rysbrack's studio in 1732.
Sotheby's New York.
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/02/busts-of-oliver-cromwell-at-lady-lever.html
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Oliver Cromwell.
terracotta
Here attributed to Francis Harwood.
This terracotta bust is related to the unsigned marble bust of Cromwell in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the marble bust recently sold by Christie's Lot 69 - 4 December 2018, -signed and dated 1757.
This terracotta bust is related to the unsigned marble bust of Cromwell in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the marble bust recently sold by Christie's Lot 69 - 4 December 2018, -signed and dated 1757.
According to the Christie's catalogue there are two other marble versions (they say derived from a terracotta in the Bargello, Florence. It is hard to justify this statement - see the images of the Bargello head below.
The catalogue entry continues
The catalogue entry continues
"The present bust (marble above) is the earliest of four known portraits of
Cromwell in marble that are signed or attributable to Harwood. Dated 1757, the
present bust is one of the sculptor’s earliest known works in marble and is
likely to be the prime version of Harwood's busts of this subject.
The other known versions are:
the signed and dated F. Harwood fecit 1759 marble bust previously in the collection of Lord Brabourne, sold at Christie’s, London, 15 July 1986, lot 73 and again from the Cyril Humphries Collection, Sotheby’s, New York, 10 January 1995, lot 66;
Another version, unsigned, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 2 July 1997, lot 264, attributed to Harwood and with an Italian identification of Cromwell on the shallow plinth..."
the signed and dated F. Harwood fecit 1759 marble bust previously in the collection of Lord Brabourne, sold at Christie’s, London, 15 July 1986, lot 73 and again from the Cyril Humphries Collection, Sotheby’s, New York, 10 January 1995, lot 66;
Another version, unsigned, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 2 July 1997, lot 264, attributed to Harwood and with an Italian identification of Cromwell on the shallow plinth..."
"A terracotta head of Cromwell, now in the Bargello (see below), was
mentioned in the Medici inventories in 1704, and again in 1769 in the
inventories of the Uffizi and it is probably from this that Harwood got his
likeness".
It is difficult to reconcile this statement when examining the photographs below.
It is difficult to reconcile this statement when examining the photographs below.
See my previous blog post -
The Head of Oliver Cromwell.
Terracotta? with Glass Eyes.in the Bargello Museum, Florence.
Parliamentary Archives: GB-061
Catalogue Reference:
HC/LB/1/111/14/10
Former Archival Reference:
House of Commons Library Ms 111, Box 14, Photograph 10
http://digitalarchive.parliament.uk/HC/LB/1/111/14/10
see my blog entry.
https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/02/anonymous-bust-of-oliver-cromwell-in.html
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Illustration above from
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Illustration above from
THE CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS OF OLIVER CROMWELL
by David Piper Walpole Soc Journal 1952 - 54.
Oliver Cromwell.
Bust in the possession of the Duke of Grafton
by John Keyse Sherwin (1751 - 1790).
Stipple engraving,
late 18th century
7 in. x 5 3/8 in. (177 mm x 138 mm) paper size.
National Portrait Gallery.
There is a letter from Horace Walpole to the Earl of Hartford - 5 October 1764, mentioning a bust of Cromwell at the Duke of Grafton's, which certainly refers to this bust.
The bust was some time at Wakefield Lodge, Pottersbury, Towcestere, Northamptonshire. Originally built by John Claypole, the son in law of Oliver Cromwell. Acquired from the Crown in 1712 - the Duke of Grafton rebuilt it in 1749 (it was mostly demolished in 1949 - a wing by William Kent survives).
In 1785 the bust was in the Piccadilly town house of the Duke of Grafton and is described in Memoirs of the Protectoral-House of Cromwell by Mark Noble, published in 1785, (pages 303 and 304) - as being of plaster, coloured to represent brass, an exact likeness of the bust in Florence.
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