ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEPH WILTON, MID-18TH CENTURY

Details

A CARVED MARBLE BUST OF THE VENUS DE MEDICI
ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEPH WILTON, MID-18TH CENTURY
Depicted with drapery around the shoulders, on a circular marble socle.
21¼ in. (54 cm.) high, the bust. 26¼ in. (66.6 cm.) high, overall.

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. R. Smith, Nollekens and His Time, London, 1828, II, p. 105.
R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, London, 1951, pp. 434-437.
M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530 to 1830, rev. J. Physick,
London, 1988, pp. 261-269.
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique - The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 325-328, fig. 173.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

In our opinion this bust is attributed to Joseph Wilton, not by Joseph Wilton.
This lot includes a red marble pedestal, 20th Century.

Lot Essay

Wilton trained under Laurent Delvaux in Nivelles, and in 1744 moved to Paris to study at the Academie with Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. From 1747 he spent seven years in Italy. From 1755 onwards he returned to England and established himself as one of the foremost sculptors in the country after being appointed "Sculptor to His Majesty" in 1764.
In 1768 he became one of the Foundation members of the Royal Academy and even exhibited there from 1796 to 1783. In 1790 he was appointed Keeper of the Royal Academy, a post he kept until his death in 1803.
Wilton's most grandiose public statement was the Monument to General Wolfe in Westminster Abbey, which was erected 1772 (Whinney, op.cit., p. 265, fig. 193). Although perhaps best known as a designer of church monuments and as a portraitist, Wilton also produced classical statuary, including a Venus de' Medici for Lord Charlemont, Venus and Apollo for the Earl of Pembroke, and Flora and Bacchus for Lord Tilney (Gunnis, op.cit., p. 436). The present bust, after the Venus de' Medici (Haskell and Penny, loc. cit.), shows Wilton's mastery of the Classical image.

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