ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN VAN NOST THE ELDER (D.1729), FIRST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details

A LEAD FIGURE OF PAN
ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN VAN NOST THE ELDER (D.1729), FIRST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
Depicted holding pipes aloft in his right hand and a single pipe in his left; his left leg raised; on an associated panelled composite stone square pedestal with moulded platform and base
65 in. (165 cm.) high; 104¼ in. (264.7 cm.) high, overall

Provenance

Purchased by Baron Lockhart of Lee and installed at Lee Castle in the first quarter of the 18th century.
Moved by a branch of the Lockhart family in the mid 19th century to Cleghorn House where it is shown in a photograph of circa 1890.
Purchased from a member of the Lockhart family by the present owner.

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, rev. edition, London, 1964, pp. 279-282.
K. Woodbridge, 'William Kent's Gardening - The Rousham Letters', in Apollo, October 1974, pp. 282-290.
G. Plumptre, Garden Ornament - Five Hundred Years of History and Practice, London, 1989.

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.

Lot Essay

Like many of the sculptors working in England in the 17th and 18th centuries, John van Nost was a foreigner. Originally Flemish, van Nost was no doubt drawn by the wealth being generated in England and the potential patronage to be gained there. He is first documented as working at Windsor Castle in circa 1668 where he was working under Hugh May. However he was to go on to have a successful career executing church monuments and chimneypieces for members of the aristocracy and, as Vertue noted, became 'a master of reputation and left behind him a good fortune' (quoted in Gunnis, op. cit., p. 279).

Today van Nost is known principally for another aspect of his career: the production of lead garden statues. He supplied figures to some of the greatest houses of the period, including Castle Howard, Melbourne Hall and Rousham. And it is at the latter house that there remains a lead figure of Pan by van Nost (illustrated in Plumptre, op. cit., p. 105) which has close stylistic affinities to the present lot. Each uses the device of raising one foot on a rocky outcrop to add variety to the posture of the figure, and each has a similar, somewhat mannered, positioning of the arms in relation to the body. The facial types, with their penetrating eyes and long noses are also closely comparable. Finally, it should be noted that in a sale catalogue of some of van Nost's inventory in 1712 (17 April, 'A Catalogue of Mr. Van Nost's Collection') there is listed under number 14, 'Pan, Small Life, lead' available for £6.

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