Friday, 26 July 2019
An Artists Studio - oil painting - York Museum Trust
Monday, 22 July 2019
Marble Bust of Stanislaw Malachowski by John Deare and a few notes regarding Deare.
John Deare (26 October 1759, Liverpool – 17 August 1798,
Rome) was a British neo-classical sculptor. His nephew Joseph (1803-1835) was
also a sculptor.
Son of a jeweller in Liverpool. John Deare in 1777 he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a gold medal for a Miltonic subject (1780).
Meanwhile he also served an apprenticeship to the London carver Thomas Carter from 1776 to 1783, who amongst other worked for Robert Adam. When he completed his apprenticeship he began sculpting as a freelancer, especially for his Carter as well as for John Bacon (whose work he admired) and possibly for John Cheere (this needs clarifying).
Independent commissions included the reliefs The War of Jupiter and the Titans in plaster for Whitton Park's pediment and The Good Samaritan (post-1782) for the Liverpool Dispensary. Deare was himself admired by his contemporaries, particularly by Joseph Nollekens.
However, so far his
only surviving early works are those he produced to be made in ceramic by Derby
for clocks by Benjamin Vulliamy.
The Royal Academy gave him a pension for a three year stay in Rome (on the condition he sent back a work to the RA's annual exhibition), starting in 1785, where he starting drawing the classical sculpture collections at (among others) the Villa Albani and the Capitoline Museums, probably joined the Adamiani sect (insisting God be worshipped naked) and set up an artistic circle including Robert Fagan, Charles Grignion, Samuel Woodforde and George Cumberland.
For his exhibition piece he modelled in plaster The Judgement of Jupiter (with over 20 figures and emulating history painting of the time, it was the largest 18th century relief by a British artist) but the Academy argued with him over its size and it was not sent to London (a marble version, commissioned by Sir Richard Worsley in 1788, is now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
His next relief was Edward and Eleanor (drawn from a play by poet James Thomson). He also acted as an agent for Thomas Hope and the Earl of
Bristol in their acquisition of works by his friend John Flaxman and for Henry
Blundell and John Latouche in acquiring works by Canova (all four of whom also
bought works by Deare), and also financed himself on the expiry of his pension
by carving copies of classical sculptures for British Grand Tourists, by
restoring classical sculptures for collectors and by producing chimneypieces
for patrons that included one at Frogmore House for the Prince of Wales
(employing Joseph Gandy and other architects for the latter purpose).
By his death in Rome in 1796 (supposedly after sleeping on a block of
marble hoping for inspiration and catching a chill) Deare had married an
Italian woman, who he left with their children as a widow and for whose benefit
Deare's friends such as Vincenzo Pacetti and Christopher Hewetson posthumously
disposed of his studio contents. Three days after his death he was buried in
Rome Protestant Cemetery.
Works.
* The Judgement of Jupiter
* Edward and Eleanor (1786, marble version of 1790 for Sir
Corbet Corbet now in a private collection).
* Marine Venus, marble relief, purchased in 1787 by Sir
Cecil Bisshop for Parham Park, Sussex, drawing on classical and 16th century
Mannerist sculpture
* Cupid and Psyche, marble (1791) for Thomas Hope (plaster
version, Lyons House, co. Kildare)
* The Landing of Julius Caesar in Britain (1791–4; Stoke
Manor, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire), the subject chosen by its commissioner
John Penn
* Portrait bust of John Penn (Eton College) another in the Church at Soke Poges, Buckingham.
Classical copies
* Apollo Belvedere, commissioned in 1792 for Attingham by
Lord Berwick
* Faun with a Kid (Prado Museum, Madrid), acquired by Lord
Cloncurry (private collection)
* Bust of Ariadne (c.1789, now in the Capitoline Museum,
Rome), for John Latouche
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Some More Busts of Isaac Newton
The embroidery on the dress and the shape of the socle would suggest that this is possible although it might be a later pirated cast by one of the many 19th century Italian plaster casters working in the Leather Lane are of London.
Bust on the Staircase 138 Federal Street, Salem, Massachusetts .
Tuesday, 2 July 2019
Possibly Irish Marble Bust - Christie's October 1999
A Miniature Carved Wooden Bust of Matthew Prior attrib. to Martin Jugiez
Approximately 12 cms tall.
Carved Mahogany.
Here attributed to Martin Jugiez (fl 1762 - d. 1815) of Philadelphia.
This bust was once almost certainly mounted on a piece of furniture - the socle is not original.
Currently on the English Art Market.
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I first posted on the subject of the busts of Matthew Prior 11 November 2014 with particular reference to the busts of John Cheere.
see - http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-lead-of-matthew-prior-by-john-cheere.html
see also for another bust of Prior on
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/12/some-carved-wooden-busts-on-mid-18th.html
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The photographs below are not great - taken with my i phone in poor light.
In the Pennsylvania Gazette in 10 January 1765 they offered " a great variety of figures, large and small busts in plaister of Paris, and Brackets for ditto". and "Any gentlemen and ladies that want paper machie cielings may be supplied at a reasonable rate."
They advertised again in the Pennsylvania Gazette 3 September 1767.
Luke Beckerdite on the Chipstone Foundation website makes the point - Jugiez’s (busts of Locke and Milton) were probably inspired by imports. In 1765 Jugiez and Bernard advertised a “variety of neat figures and busts in plaister of Paris, with brackets for ditto.
http://www.chipstone.org/html/publications/2004AF/Beckerdite/beckerditeindex.html
of tangential interest see -
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/11/carved-wooden-bust-of-benjamin-franklin.html
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Matthew Prior, Although somewhat crude the little mahogany bust is obviously derived from the Cheere bust.
Finial bust of Milton, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, c. 1770. Mahogany.
Based on the Bust by John Cheere.
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Based on the bust by John Cheere.
Mahogany.
8.5 ins.
c. 1760's.
Private American Collection.
Joseph Addison
John Locke
Mahogany
Metropolitan Museum
Dimensions: 10 1/2 x 6 1/4 x 3 1/4 in. (26.7 x 15.9 x 8.3
cm).
Images above from the Metropolitan Museum.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/14515
The bust above is illustratd in American Rococo, 1750-1775: Elegance in Ornament
By Morrison H. Heckscher, Leslie Greene Bowman.
1992.