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Lot Essay
The present bust is almost identical in composition to a marble bust of Milton commissioned from Peter Scheemakers for Frederick, Prince of Wales, as a gift to Alexander Pope, and now at Hagley Hall, Worcestershire (see comparative image).
Peter Scheemakers
Scheemakers, born in Antwerp, travelled to London before 1721, and became ‘the foremost London sculptor working in the ideal Classical style’, and was in competition for much of his career with Michael Rysback and Louis-Francois Roubiliac. After settling in London he set up a business with Laurent Delvaux (1696-1778). In 1728 they both left London for Italy ‘to form & improve their studies’. Scheemakers returned in 1730 with ‘a remarkable set of terracotta models…[that] advertised his skill in shaping clay’ (Roscoe, 1999, op. cit., p.163).
John Milton
Throughout his career Scheemakers created at least four busts of John Milton (1608-1674), the great English poet and author of Paradise Lost. These were seemingly all part of commissioned series of contemporary or near-contemporary ‘Great Men’, which had become popular since Queen Caroline’s monument to ‘Men of Learning’ at Richmond (1731-2). The first of these is perhaps the three marble busts of Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, and Milton commissioned by Scheemakers’ greatest patron Dr Richard Mead for the library of his rebuilt London home, dating to circa 1734, and now lost. In 1735 Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II, commissioned two sets of library busts from Scheemakers, one for himself (now lost), and the second as a gift for Alexander Pope. The latter were placed in Pope’s villa at Twickenham until they were bequeathed to George Lyttelton in 1743 and have been located in the library at Hagley ever since 1747-8. To go with the bust of Milton, Scheemakers carved busts of Dryden, Shakespeare and Spenser, to create a set of four pre-eminent British historical poets. In both the present version and the marble bust of Milton at Hagley, the poet is shown with his long, curling locks swept to each side at the crown, his face tilted slightly to sinister, his tunic fastened with a series of buttons, and the bust enlivened with a great sweep of drapery that comes over the right shoulder and all the way around his body.
As part of his working practice Scheemakers made models of his compositions in clay and Roscoe points to evidence that these appear to be finished models with the external surface carefully worked (Roscoe, 1999, op. cit. p. 166). Both Malcolm Baker and Roscoe have noted that although a few models for busts are mentioned in Scheemakers 1756 sale catalogue, none seem to have survived (private communication, August 2016). The present bust is almost exactly half scale of the marble version at Hagley, which suggests that it may be a reduced version of this bust, possibly made after the marble version was prominently displayed in Pope’s Twickenham villa. The delicately handled surface shows evidence of Scheemakers’ skills with terracotta in hand, particularly in the fluid drapery style, which can be compared to his figure models of Abundance or Charity and of Dr Hugh Chamberlen (Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. nos. A.2-1985 and A.6-1927).
Peter Scheemakers
Scheemakers, born in Antwerp, travelled to London before 1721, and became ‘the foremost London sculptor working in the ideal Classical style’, and was in competition for much of his career with Michael Rysback and Louis-Francois Roubiliac. After settling in London he set up a business with Laurent Delvaux (1696-1778). In 1728 they both left London for Italy ‘to form & improve their studies’. Scheemakers returned in 1730 with ‘a remarkable set of terracotta models…[that] advertised his skill in shaping clay’ (Roscoe, 1999, op. cit., p.163).
John Milton
Throughout his career Scheemakers created at least four busts of John Milton (1608-1674), the great English poet and author of Paradise Lost. These were seemingly all part of commissioned series of contemporary or near-contemporary ‘Great Men’, which had become popular since Queen Caroline’s monument to ‘Men of Learning’ at Richmond (1731-2). The first of these is perhaps the three marble busts of Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, and Milton commissioned by Scheemakers’ greatest patron Dr Richard Mead for the library of his rebuilt London home, dating to circa 1734, and now lost. In 1735 Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II, commissioned two sets of library busts from Scheemakers, one for himself (now lost), and the second as a gift for Alexander Pope. The latter were placed in Pope’s villa at Twickenham until they were bequeathed to George Lyttelton in 1743 and have been located in the library at Hagley ever since 1747-8. To go with the bust of Milton, Scheemakers carved busts of Dryden, Shakespeare and Spenser, to create a set of four pre-eminent British historical poets. In both the present version and the marble bust of Milton at Hagley, the poet is shown with his long, curling locks swept to each side at the crown, his face tilted slightly to sinister, his tunic fastened with a series of buttons, and the bust enlivened with a great sweep of drapery that comes over the right shoulder and all the way around his body.
As part of his working practice Scheemakers made models of his compositions in clay and Roscoe points to evidence that these appear to be finished models with the external surface carefully worked (Roscoe, 1999, op. cit. p. 166). Both Malcolm Baker and Roscoe have noted that although a few models for busts are mentioned in Scheemakers 1756 sale catalogue, none seem to have survived (private communication, August 2016). The present bust is almost exactly half scale of the marble version at Hagley, which suggests that it may be a reduced version of this bust, possibly made after the marble version was prominently displayed in Pope’s Twickenham villa. The delicately handled surface shows evidence of Scheemakers’ skills with terracotta in hand, particularly in the fluid drapery style, which can be compared to his figure models of Abundance or Charity and of Dr Hugh Chamberlen (Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. nos. A.2-1985 and A.6-1927).