- Museum number
- 1762,0528.7
- Description
-
Terracotta portrait bust of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) by Louis-Francois Roubiliac (1702-62), slightly to right, wearing armour under drapery which covers his right shoulder.
- Production date
- 1730-1760 (citca)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 63.30 centimetres (max.)
-
Weight: 21.50 kilograms
-
Width: 50.30 centimetres
-
Depth: 22 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Dawson 1999
Literature: E. Beresford Chancellor, The Lives of the British Sculptors, and those who have worked in England from the earliest days to Sir Francis Chantrey, London, 1911, pp. 123-4; K. A. Esdaile, 'Studies of the English sculptors from Pierce to Chantrey. XIII. Louis François Roubiliac (1695-1762) continued', Architect, 16 June 1922, p. 451; K. A. Esdaile, The Life and Works of Louis François Roubiliac, Oxford and London, 1928, pp.41, 43, 103-4, 182, pl. XLIVa; M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain 1530-1830, rev. ed. John Physick, 1988, p. 224; Mallet, 1962, pp. 167-8
Displayed: 1765, in one of the principal rooms in Montagu House;(1) 1817, over the bookcases in the Print Room (formerly in Mr Baber's department, note from J. T. Smith, 17 November 1817, P&D Archive, Trustees' Reports); 1847, probably still in the Print Room (BM Archive, Officers' Reports, Sir Henry Ellis, 3 June 1847); 1881, probably in Print Room when drawn by Sir George Scharf;(2) 1888, over the cases in the Glass and Ceramic Gallery (Guide, 1888, p. 18); 1922, 'in private rooms' (Esdaile, 1922, XIII, p. 451); 1949-85, on loan to the V&A; 1985-94, MLA Dept; 1994, Gallery 46 'Europe 1400-1800'
Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, where he was educated at the free school attached to the hospital of St John, later attending Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, before going to London to study law. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628, and later sat for Cambridge. On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 he became captain of a cavalry troop in Essex's army and fought at Edgehill. He soon established a formidable military reputation and raised a regiment. In 1644 he was made a general. As one of Charles I's judges he signed his death warrant in 1649. He was installed as Lord Protector on 16 December 1653, when a new constitution began to be drawn up. Under the Commonwealth Cromwell fought for religious liberty for Protestants and Nonconformists. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, but his body was exhumed in January 1661 and hung on the gallows at Tyburn; the head was then set on a pole on top of Westminster Hall.
There are numerous portraits of Cromwell.(3) A marble bust by Edward Pearce in the Museum of London, which is dated 1672, is the earliest three-dimensional image. As Nicholas Penny has remarked,(4) busts of Cromwell were exceedingly popular in the eighteenth century and were carved by all the leading sculptors, such as Rysbrack, Wilton and Nollekens, as well as Roubiliac. No study has yet been made of who purchased these busts, but the memory of the Protector appears to have lived on without attracting the opprobrium which might have been expected. Grosley remarks, 'I was shown at court the grand daughter or great grand daughter of Cromwell, a connexion which is not much considered as a mark of infamy as it is of honour and distinction.'(5) A marble by Francis Harwood was sold on the London market in July 1986,(6) and another in July 1997.(7) Nicholas Penny suggests that Harwood's portraits are in turn based on a marble which he attributes to Nollekens, and which depicts the sitter in armour,(8) but this attribution has been questioned by Malcolm Baker, who believes it is after all by Harwood.(9) Roubiliac himself created more than one image of the Protector, as his sale lists both 'medals' and a 'basso relievo'.(10) A terracotta medallion of Cromwell now in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto is discussed by John Mallet,(11) who describes it as 'very closely based on the bust presented by Doctor Maty to the British Museum' and 'a work of considerable power' whose 'characterization of the Protector's face is more convincing than in the British Museum bust'. Esdaile(12) considered it 'iconographically the least satisfactory of the Museum busts, which bears no close resemblance to any of the famous pictures' of the Protector, but points to the sculptor's 'revaluing of the entire personality' of the sitter. Whinney describes the terracotta as 'alert and virile'.(13)
Like that of the terracotta of King Charles I (see registration no. 1762,0528.6), the surface coating on this bust has been almost completely removed in the course of time. Traces of a dark brown surface layer remain on the face and hair, which can also be discerned on the collar and right shoulder. The head is hollow, and was probably made separately, the hair and collar effectively disguising the join, as on other terracottas in the collection.
Notes:
(1) P. J. Grosley, Londres, 1770 edn, trans. Thomas Nugent as A Tour to London: or, New Observations on England and its Inhabitants, London, 1772, 2 vols (British Library pressmark 567 d 3), p. 216. Grosley's first visit to London was in 1765, but there appears to be no edition of his account of it earlier than 1770.
(2) For Scharf s drawing see fig. 7.
(3) D. Piper, 'The contemporary portraits of Oliver Cromwell', Walpole Society, XXXIV, 1952-4, pp. 27-41.
(4) N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum 1540 to the Present Day, III: British, Oxford, 1992, p. 142.
(5) Grosley, trans. Nugent, 1772, p. 66.
(6) Christie's, Important Marble Statuary, European Sculpture and Works of Art, 15 July 1986, lot 73, H. 62 cm, dated 1759, noted by Penny, 1992, p. 142.
(7) Sotheby's, European Sculpture and Works of Art, 2 July 1997, lot 264. A bust of Cromwell signed and dated F. Harwood Fecit 1759 was sold at Sotheby's New York, 10 January 1995, lot 66.
(8) Penny, 1992, no. 558.
(9) M. Baker, review of Penny, 1992, in Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXVI, no. 1101, December 1994, p. 851.
(10) 'Lot 24 2nd day's sale 13 May 1762 - one of 4 "medals"; lot 25, one of 5 medals; lot 52, mould in same lot with Inigo Jones; lot 92, basso relievo of Inigo Jones and Oliver Cromwell; lot 33, 4th day's sale six medals of Pope, Inigo Jones, Mr Handell, Sir Isaac Newton, Mr. Garrick, and O. Cromwell'; see D. Bindman and M. Baker, Roubiliac and the Eighteenth-century Monument: Sculpture as Theatre, New Haven and London, 1995, Appendix B, pp. 362-9, for a transcription of Roubiliac's sale catalogues.
(11) J. V. G Mallet, 'Some portrait medallions by Roubiliac', Burlington Magazine, vol. CIV, no. 709, April 1962, p. 157, fig. 26.
(12) Esdaile, 1928, p. 104.
(13) Whinney, 1988, p. 224.
An old note by Hugh Tait records that the bust was seen by Vertue in 1738, but this was not checked by A. Dawson.
- Location
- On display (G46/od)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1985 May-Oct, Museum of London, The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots 1685-1985
- Condition
- Right side of collar repaired, right side of face repaired, top right and left of cloak damaged and lower front part missing, numerous cracks, especially on the front. The surface coating has been almost completely removed. Restored in 1961 in the British Museum.
- Acquisition date
- 1762
- Acquisition notes
- Presented by Dr Matthew Maty, 1762, who purchased it at Roubiliac's sale, lot 84 in second day's sale, 13 May 1762.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1762,0528.7