DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68074#0077
MARRIAGE AND FAME 43
damaged, and the nose repaired in plaster. How it came into the Society’s
possession I have been unable to ascertain.1
The third bust alluded to by Vertue, that of Oliver Cromwell, may have
been the dramatic terra-cotta bought by Dr. Maty in 1762 and presented to
the British Museum (Plate xliv a); more probably it is the type represented
by a dull marble copy in the Russell Cotes Art Gallery at Bournemouth.’
Whether either is identical with the Cromwell said to be at Langley Park,
Norfolk, I have been unable to ascertain; but the simplicity of the Bourne-
mouth type suggests an earlier original than that in the British Museum.
Nor was Vertue the only visitor to the studio—not, as we shall see, the famous
studio, which the sculptor only entered in 1740—in St. Martin’s Lane. In the
London Daily Post of 18th May, 1738, a certain ‘ L.’ pours forth his feelings in an
epigram To Mr. Roubiliac the Sculptor, after viewing his Rape of Lucretia and other
Models.
When sage Prometheus fram’d a Man in Clay,
From Sol’s bright Orb he stole the quick’ning Ray;
Thy happier Talents no such Fraud require,
Since, with the Form, they blend the Living Fire.
Now in 1762 a model representing ‘ A Gentleman surprizing a Lady on a
Couch ’ was sold after the sculptor’s death, and as, even apart from the epi-
gram, we should be justified in assuming not a piece of Gallic double entente but
an historical or mythological meaning for the work, there is little doubt that
the two descriptions refer to the same group, which may well have been exe-
cuted as a companion to the Susannah and the Elders of 1730.
All sorts of rumours about Roubiliac’s origin were rife in London even at a
later date. Vertue heard first that he was ‘ a Frenchman sculptor, born in
Switzerland ’, which may be true; in May, 1749, we read: ‘ This Mr. Rubillac
is a Frenchman born in Normandy, has been many years in England ’; again,
in August, 1749: ‘ Mr. Roubiliac, said to be born in Lyons in France, that he
went to Liege, where he learnt his art’: and again, in the same lengthy passage
quoted in full on p. 63 : ‘ Born in France, but came to settle here at least
twenty years past, haveing but small encouragement at first.’
1 A terra-cotta model of Newton, sold at
Christie’s as lot 72 in The Valuable Museum . . of
Antique Marble Figures, and Bustos, Bronzes, Models
in Terracotta, &c., dispersed on 1 ith-i4th January,
1794, may have been the model for this work. It
belonged to Mr. Christie, and was bought by a
Mr. Walton for seven guineas, as Messrs. Christie
and Manson have kindly informed me. The bust
said by MM. Audin and Vial to be at Drayton
is, as the Hon. George Peel tells me, not there.
s I have to thank Mr. Reginald Grundy for
drawing my attention to the Bournemouth
Cromwell, with Roubiliac carved upon the back,
and Mr. R. H. Quick, the Curator of the Gallery,
for the opportunity of discussing it with him.
damaged, and the nose repaired in plaster. How it came into the Society’s
possession I have been unable to ascertain.1
The third bust alluded to by Vertue, that of Oliver Cromwell, may have
been the dramatic terra-cotta bought by Dr. Maty in 1762 and presented to
the British Museum (Plate xliv a); more probably it is the type represented
by a dull marble copy in the Russell Cotes Art Gallery at Bournemouth.’
Whether either is identical with the Cromwell said to be at Langley Park,
Norfolk, I have been unable to ascertain; but the simplicity of the Bourne-
mouth type suggests an earlier original than that in the British Museum.
Nor was Vertue the only visitor to the studio—not, as we shall see, the famous
studio, which the sculptor only entered in 1740—in St. Martin’s Lane. In the
London Daily Post of 18th May, 1738, a certain ‘ L.’ pours forth his feelings in an
epigram To Mr. Roubiliac the Sculptor, after viewing his Rape of Lucretia and other
Models.
When sage Prometheus fram’d a Man in Clay,
From Sol’s bright Orb he stole the quick’ning Ray;
Thy happier Talents no such Fraud require,
Since, with the Form, they blend the Living Fire.
Now in 1762 a model representing ‘ A Gentleman surprizing a Lady on a
Couch ’ was sold after the sculptor’s death, and as, even apart from the epi-
gram, we should be justified in assuming not a piece of Gallic double entente but
an historical or mythological meaning for the work, there is little doubt that
the two descriptions refer to the same group, which may well have been exe-
cuted as a companion to the Susannah and the Elders of 1730.
All sorts of rumours about Roubiliac’s origin were rife in London even at a
later date. Vertue heard first that he was ‘ a Frenchman sculptor, born in
Switzerland ’, which may be true; in May, 1749, we read: ‘ This Mr. Rubillac
is a Frenchman born in Normandy, has been many years in England ’; again,
in August, 1749: ‘ Mr. Roubiliac, said to be born in Lyons in France, that he
went to Liege, where he learnt his art’: and again, in the same lengthy passage
quoted in full on p. 63 : ‘ Born in France, but came to settle here at least
twenty years past, haveing but small encouragement at first.’
1 A terra-cotta model of Newton, sold at
Christie’s as lot 72 in The Valuable Museum . . of
Antique Marble Figures, and Bustos, Bronzes, Models
in Terracotta, &c., dispersed on 1 ith-i4th January,
1794, may have been the model for this work. It
belonged to Mr. Christie, and was bought by a
Mr. Walton for seven guineas, as Messrs. Christie
and Manson have kindly informed me. The bust
said by MM. Audin and Vial to be at Drayton
is, as the Hon. George Peel tells me, not there.
s I have to thank Mr. Reginald Grundy for
drawing my attention to the Bournemouth
Cromwell, with Roubiliac carved upon the back,
and Mr. R. H. Quick, the Curator of the Gallery,
for the opportunity of discussing it with him.