CIRCLE OF JOHN VAN NOST, CIRCA 1720

The van Nosts were a family of sculptors of Flemish descent. The eldest, John van Nost, is first recorded working at Windsor Castle circa 1678. He had his own yard by circa 1687 and there manufactured 'Marble and Leaden figures, Busto's and noble Vases, Marble Chimney Pieces and Curious Marble Tables'. However, he is best remembered, and most influential, as a supplier of cast-lead garden statues, such as those for Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, between 1699 and 1705, for which he was paid around 20-30 each. Inspired by Versailles, gardens ornamented with statuary were increasingly popular in England, and the demand for figures in both stone and lead was substantial. Van Nost worked in a restrained Baroque manner, appealing to English taste, but often based compositions on earlier and contemporary European sources such as Giambologna and Du Quesnoy; his subjects for garden figures invariably drawn from classical mythology and literature. He had a large school of pupils and assistants and after his death, circa 1712, the workshop near Hyde Park Corner was continued by his nephew, Gerard van Nost, until it was taken over by John van Nost the younger in 1729. Many of the moulds for his lead statues continued in use until at least the mid-18th century.