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Lot Essay
This exceptional marble bust was carved by Francis Harwood, a leading British sculptor who spent the majority of his career working in Florence. Depicting Oliver Cromwell, a principal military and political figure of the preceding century, the provenance of the bust is particularly illustrious having come from the historic collections of the Earls of Granard at Castle Forbes, Ireland.
The present bust 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 three other known versions are: one signed and dated F. Harwood fecit 1759 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; and the fourth known version, also unsigned, is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (N. Penny, loc. cit.).
Of the four versions the present bust is seemingly the liveliest and finest in the details. Harwood’s portrait of Cromwell shows the great historical figure full of vigour and in thoughtful and controlled contemplation. The Lord Protector is shown looking slightly to his left, with thick curls of hair magisterially drilled and undercut in places. A wart is clearly defined over his thick right eyebrow, a reference to Cromwell’s alleged instruction to either Peter Lely or Samuel Cooper; ‘I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts and everything as you see me.’ Cromwell was intensely religious and a puritan, opposed to all forms of personal vanity, and versed in this history Harwood followed a tradition of depicting Cromwell as a serious man, not inclined to cover up signs of approaching old age, as can be seen in the slightly sagging skin and receding hair of Harwood's bust.
The emergence of this bust and its dating of 1757 sheds an important light on Harwood’s life, and suggests that these early years in Florence were the most enterprising and energetic of his career. Harwood spent most of his life in Italy, arriving in Rome in 1752 before settling in Florence the year after, where he worked in the studio of Giovanni Battista Piamontini, and then took charge of this studio after the latter’s death in 1762. The sculptor won the attention and admiration of the visiting British Grand Tourists after he was awarded the public commission for a statue of Equity to surmount the new Porta San Gallo in Florence. Most prominent amongst his patrons were Robert and James Adam, who commissioned Harwood to create a lifesize Apollo for the dining room at Syon House, and he won the praise of the British envoy Horace Mann. Later in his career Harwood attracted some criticism, most noticeably from fellow sculptor Joseph Nollekens who in a letter dated 1769 referred to an ‘FH… [who was] knocking the marbil about like feway [fury] & belive he as got more work to do than any One sculptor in England’ (Roscoe, op. cit., p. 584).
This portrait of Cromwell appears to have been an invention of Harwood's and not copied from an earlier model. A terracotta head of Cromwell, now in the Bargello, 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. Harwood spent most of his career copying antique statues and busts for Grand Tourists, so the present bust would be a rare example of Harwood creating an original model for a sculpture. In discussing the bust in the Ashmolean Museum, Penny argued that Harwood did not have the requisite talent to invent a bust of this character and accredited the creation of the model to Joseph Nollekens (Penny, loc. cit.). But this attribution was questioned by Baker, who asserted Harwood's authorship of both the model and bust (M. Baker, review of Penny, 1992, in Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXVI, no. 1101, Dec. 1994, p. 581). The discovery of the present signed bust, with the earliest dating of the known versions, is further evidence towards Harwood's authorship of the model, particularly as Nollekens was only 20 in 1757 and had not yet visited Rome.
The present bust 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 three other known versions are: one signed and dated F. Harwood fecit 1759 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; and the fourth known version, also unsigned, is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (N. Penny, loc. cit.).
Of the four versions the present bust is seemingly the liveliest and finest in the details. Harwood’s portrait of Cromwell shows the great historical figure full of vigour and in thoughtful and controlled contemplation. The Lord Protector is shown looking slightly to his left, with thick curls of hair magisterially drilled and undercut in places. A wart is clearly defined over his thick right eyebrow, a reference to Cromwell’s alleged instruction to either Peter Lely or Samuel Cooper; ‘I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts and everything as you see me.’ Cromwell was intensely religious and a puritan, opposed to all forms of personal vanity, and versed in this history Harwood followed a tradition of depicting Cromwell as a serious man, not inclined to cover up signs of approaching old age, as can be seen in the slightly sagging skin and receding hair of Harwood's bust.
The emergence of this bust and its dating of 1757 sheds an important light on Harwood’s life, and suggests that these early years in Florence were the most enterprising and energetic of his career. Harwood spent most of his life in Italy, arriving in Rome in 1752 before settling in Florence the year after, where he worked in the studio of Giovanni Battista Piamontini, and then took charge of this studio after the latter’s death in 1762. The sculptor won the attention and admiration of the visiting British Grand Tourists after he was awarded the public commission for a statue of Equity to surmount the new Porta San Gallo in Florence. Most prominent amongst his patrons were Robert and James Adam, who commissioned Harwood to create a lifesize Apollo for the dining room at Syon House, and he won the praise of the British envoy Horace Mann. Later in his career Harwood attracted some criticism, most noticeably from fellow sculptor Joseph Nollekens who in a letter dated 1769 referred to an ‘FH… [who was] knocking the marbil about like feway [fury] & belive he as got more work to do than any One sculptor in England’ (Roscoe, op. cit., p. 584).
This portrait of Cromwell appears to have been an invention of Harwood's and not copied from an earlier model. A terracotta head of Cromwell, now in the Bargello, 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. Harwood spent most of his career copying antique statues and busts for Grand Tourists, so the present bust would be a rare example of Harwood creating an original model for a sculpture. In discussing the bust in the Ashmolean Museum, Penny argued that Harwood did not have the requisite talent to invent a bust of this character and accredited the creation of the model to Joseph Nollekens (Penny, loc. cit.). But this attribution was questioned by Baker, who asserted Harwood's authorship of both the model and bust (M. Baker, review of Penny, 1992, in Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXVI, no. 1101, Dec. 1994, p. 581). The discovery of the present signed bust, with the earliest dating of the known versions, is further evidence towards Harwood's authorship of the model, particularly as Nollekens was only 20 in 1757 and had not yet visited Rome.