HENRY VASSALL-FOX, 3RD BARON HOLLAND

This fine marble bust of Lord Holland was commissioned by his uncle Charles James Fox, one of the leading political figures of the era and arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger. The portrait was commissioned from Nollekens on occasion of Holland's 21st birthday, to sit in the Temple of Friendship at St. Anne's Hill House in Surrey, where Fox lived with his wife, Elisabeth Armistead.

Nollekens was Britain’s premier portrait sculptor of his generation and had a close ties with Lord Holland's family. By 1799 he had already carved two famous images of Charles James Fox, and this personal link to the family is likely to have inspired the sculptor to pay extra attention in this lively portrait of the heir apparent to Fox's Whig party. The depiction of Lord Holland's partially covered bare-chest, and alert turn of the head, results in one of the most effective portraits of Nollekens' career to this date. Nollekens carved two versions of this portrait in 1799, the other previously located in the home of Lord Holland at Holland House, although it is likely that the present version is the prime version. In 1804 Nollekens made an abbreviated version of the bust, which is in the collection of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey.