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Lot Essay
The first volume, into which has been bound a copy of the 'Memoirs of RICHD. WESTMACOTT, Esq. R.A. F.S.A.' from the European Magazine for December 1822, as well as obituaries from The Times, 31 December 1856, The Literary Gazette, The Builder and The Art Journal, is largely devoted to highly finished studies of funerary monuments and single figures of such personification as the Church Triumphant. They seem to have been unknown to the author of the most recent monograph on Westmacott who writes that, 'Apart from a few sketches, hardly any preparatory drawings can be connected to his works' (M. Busco, Sir Richard Westmacott, Sculptor, Cambridge, 1994, p. 23). Coming as the provenance suggests direct from the artist himself they may have served as records of his various sculptural projects; more probably perhaps they served as modelli to show prospective patrons for their approval. A number of them can be related to existing monuments such as the Collingwood Monument (1811-17; Busco op.cit., fig. 25), and the monuments to Anna Rhodes (died 1796; Busco, op.cit., fig. 168), Elizabeth Emma Erdley-Wilmot (died 1818; Busco, op.cit., fig. 161) and Charles Fox-Maitland (died 1818; Busco, op.cit., fig. 148).
The contents of the other volume are more varied, containing watercolour studies of landscapes, country-house portraits and churches, rough drawings of the Annunciation and Christ walking on the water, and a detailed copy of an Antique vase in the British Museum, and drawings on tracing paper, together with pressed leaves and the fins of a flying fish.
The contents of the other volume are more varied, containing watercolour studies of landscapes, country-house portraits and churches, rough drawings of the Annunciation and Christ walking on the water, and a detailed copy of an Antique vase in the British Museum, and drawings on tracing paper, together with pressed leaves and the fins of a flying fish.