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Lot Essay
The attribution of the present bust of Lucius Verus to the sculptor Laurent Delvaux is based primarily on stylistic grounds but it is strengthened by evidence that links Delvaux to four great English homes; Woburn Abbey, Wanstead House, Leigh Court and, ultimately, Wrotham Park.
Following in the steps of illustrious predecessors such as the painter van Dyck, Laurent Delvaux, was one of the first 18th century Flemish sculptors to leave his native homeland in search of patronage in England. He arrived in London in 1717 when he was only 21 years old and quickly won a number of commissions for funerary monuments in Westminster Abbey. The 1720s were a time of great prosperity for him, and he worked actively for major English patrons such as Lord Castlemaine, the Earl of Rockingham, Sir Andrew Fountaine and later, but most significantly, the 4th Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, which boasts the greatest single group of Delvaux's sculpture anywhere in private hands.
Gathered in Woburn are no less than eight works by, or firmly attributed to Delvaux, that were executed during his stay in Italy between 1728 and 1732. With the exception of his masterful homage to Bernini's David (circa 1730), the works all derive from antique prototypes such as Biblis and Caunus (circa 1730), a bust of Caracalla (1730), The Hermaphrodite (1730) and, most relevant to the lot being offered here, a bust of Lucius Verus (circa 1730, see Avery, op. cit, figs. 22, 5, 4, 17, 24 respectively). Delvaux, who was aged 32 when he arrived in Rome, had started to mature into a new style that accepted his baroque training as a foundation for his work but that was also influenced by the newly emerging neoclassical style.
It was John Sanderson, the architect of the Palladian mansion at Woburn, who must have seen Delvaux's work in his first years in Rome and convinced the Duke of Bedford to purchase five newly executed marbles as an ideal embellishment for his architectural design. The marbles were near faithful reproductions of the prototypes, but through the addition of vigorous facial expression and a heightened naturalism to the anatomy, Delvaux added to the compositions a greater sense of humanism that made them appear less rigid than the originals.
In looking at the busts of Caracalla and Lucius Verus at Woburn (the latter being an interpretation of the antique original now in the Louvre, illustrated in Gonzalez-Palacios, loc. cit) and the Lucius Verus from Wrotham, offered here, one sees Delvaux applying to them the schematic formulae of the prototypes - with tightly packed curls to the hair, stylised beards and heavily draped cloaks - and then adding to them a sense of expression. In the case of the two Lucius Verus busts, their gaze is not blank and expressionless but fixed and purposeful. Part of this has been achieved by the very particular carving of the pupils - so that they resemble an inverted 'c' - and by the adding of a subtle contortion to the brow that adds a feeling of tension in the overall composition. The two busts only vary significantly from each other in the fact that the present lot is carved as a full, draped, torso and the Woburn example only includes a shallow section of the shoulders with a curved outline. Both vary from the antique original, which is carved with a deeper section of the sitter's chest and is squared at the bottom. While it is unusual for an artist to vary a composition so significantly, it is conceivable that Delvaux was either catering to the tastes of a different patron, or, as he often did, was simply experimenting by varying the composition.
The close stylistic similarities between the two busts suggest that Delvaux could have been the author of the Lucius Verus, but an additional clue to its potential authorship also lies in its history prior to entering Wrotham Park.
Prior to 1822, the bust was in Wansted House, where Delvaux and Scheemakers were known to have worked for Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney of Castlemaine (d. 1749/50). Delvaux is documented as having carved a monumental figure of Hercules that George Vertue commented on as early as 1722, and at least two of the four monumental urns depicting mythological scenes (see Coekelberghs and Loze, op. cit, p. 222 and 228-30, cat. nos. S2 and S6-7 respectively). The Lucius Verus, Hercules and urns (lots 247, 267 and 369-372 respectively) were then sold in the, now legendary, 32-day sale of the house's contents in June 1822 with the bust and urns being purchased by Philip John Miles for Leigh court (see the photo of them in situ in the Grand Hall). In 1915, upon Florence Miles' death, the urns were sold at auction and now reside in Anglesey Abbey, however the bust was moved to Wrotham Park and remained there down to the present day.
The attribution of the present bust to Laurent Delvaux can therefore be based on both the strong stylistic similarities between the present lot and Delvaux's classically inspired oeuvre as well as the fact that until 1915, it had shared a common provenance with the urns carved by Delvaux originally at Wansted House. Although apparently unrecorded today, it is not difficult to imagine that the bust was commissioned from Delvaux by the first Earl Tylney, probably in the 1730s, just as he had with the urns and the Hercules mentioned above.
Following in the steps of illustrious predecessors such as the painter van Dyck, Laurent Delvaux, was one of the first 18th century Flemish sculptors to leave his native homeland in search of patronage in England. He arrived in London in 1717 when he was only 21 years old and quickly won a number of commissions for funerary monuments in Westminster Abbey. The 1720s were a time of great prosperity for him, and he worked actively for major English patrons such as Lord Castlemaine, the Earl of Rockingham, Sir Andrew Fountaine and later, but most significantly, the 4th Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, which boasts the greatest single group of Delvaux's sculpture anywhere in private hands.
Gathered in Woburn are no less than eight works by, or firmly attributed to Delvaux, that were executed during his stay in Italy between 1728 and 1732. With the exception of his masterful homage to Bernini's David (circa 1730), the works all derive from antique prototypes such as Biblis and Caunus (circa 1730), a bust of Caracalla (1730), The Hermaphrodite (1730) and, most relevant to the lot being offered here, a bust of Lucius Verus (circa 1730, see Avery, op. cit, figs. 22, 5, 4, 17, 24 respectively). Delvaux, who was aged 32 when he arrived in Rome, had started to mature into a new style that accepted his baroque training as a foundation for his work but that was also influenced by the newly emerging neoclassical style.
It was John Sanderson, the architect of the Palladian mansion at Woburn, who must have seen Delvaux's work in his first years in Rome and convinced the Duke of Bedford to purchase five newly executed marbles as an ideal embellishment for his architectural design. The marbles were near faithful reproductions of the prototypes, but through the addition of vigorous facial expression and a heightened naturalism to the anatomy, Delvaux added to the compositions a greater sense of humanism that made them appear less rigid than the originals.
In looking at the busts of Caracalla and Lucius Verus at Woburn (the latter being an interpretation of the antique original now in the Louvre, illustrated in Gonzalez-Palacios, loc. cit) and the Lucius Verus from Wrotham, offered here, one sees Delvaux applying to them the schematic formulae of the prototypes - with tightly packed curls to the hair, stylised beards and heavily draped cloaks - and then adding to them a sense of expression. In the case of the two Lucius Verus busts, their gaze is not blank and expressionless but fixed and purposeful. Part of this has been achieved by the very particular carving of the pupils - so that they resemble an inverted 'c' - and by the adding of a subtle contortion to the brow that adds a feeling of tension in the overall composition. The two busts only vary significantly from each other in the fact that the present lot is carved as a full, draped, torso and the Woburn example only includes a shallow section of the shoulders with a curved outline. Both vary from the antique original, which is carved with a deeper section of the sitter's chest and is squared at the bottom. While it is unusual for an artist to vary a composition so significantly, it is conceivable that Delvaux was either catering to the tastes of a different patron, or, as he often did, was simply experimenting by varying the composition.
The close stylistic similarities between the two busts suggest that Delvaux could have been the author of the Lucius Verus, but an additional clue to its potential authorship also lies in its history prior to entering Wrotham Park.
Prior to 1822, the bust was in Wansted House, where Delvaux and Scheemakers were known to have worked for Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney of Castlemaine (d. 1749/50). Delvaux is documented as having carved a monumental figure of Hercules that George Vertue commented on as early as 1722, and at least two of the four monumental urns depicting mythological scenes (see Coekelberghs and Loze, op. cit, p. 222 and 228-30, cat. nos. S2 and S6-7 respectively). The Lucius Verus, Hercules and urns (lots 247, 267 and 369-372 respectively) were then sold in the, now legendary, 32-day sale of the house's contents in June 1822 with the bust and urns being purchased by Philip John Miles for Leigh court (see the photo of them in situ in the Grand Hall). In 1915, upon Florence Miles' death, the urns were sold at auction and now reside in Anglesey Abbey, however the bust was moved to Wrotham Park and remained there down to the present day.
The attribution of the present bust to Laurent Delvaux can therefore be based on both the strong stylistic similarities between the present lot and Delvaux's classically inspired oeuvre as well as the fact that until 1915, it had shared a common provenance with the urns carved by Delvaux originally at Wansted House. Although apparently unrecorded today, it is not difficult to imagine that the bust was commissioned from Delvaux by the first Earl Tylney, probably in the 1730s, just as he had with the urns and the Hercules mentioned above.