John Michael Rysbrack, 1694–1770, Flemish, active in Britain (from 1720)
Title:
Hercules
Date:
between 1745 and 1752
Materials & Techniques:
Terracotta
Dimensions:
Overall: 22 1/2 x 21 1/2 x 9 inches (57.2 x 54.6 x 22.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.28
Classification:
Sculptures
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
man | beard | portrait
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : William III (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-04-08 - 2011-07-31)Taste & Beauty in Three Dimensions: Paul Mellon and British Sculpture (Yale Center for British Art, 2002-10-23 - 2004-02-15)
Publications:
Brian Allen, Joseph Wilton, Francis Hayman and the Chimney-Pieces from Northumberland House, Burlington Magazine, vol. 125, The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd., April 1983, p. 195, N1B87125:1 Also available online at JSTOR. Stable URL : http://www.jstor.org/stable/881097Katharine Eustace, Michael Rysbrack, sculptor, 1694-1770, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol (Avon), 1982, pp. 160, 162, fig. 48, NJ18 R973 E87 (YCBA)Taste & beauty in three dimensions : Paul Mellon and British sculpture, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Conn., 2002, p. [4], no. 7, V 1426 (YCBA)Ellis Waterhouse, Sculpture from the Paul Mellon Collection at the British Art Center at Yale, Burlington Magazine, vol. 119, May 1977, p. 351, fig. 53, N1 +B87 Oversize (YCBA)William III, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2011, p. 22, V2340
Gallery Label:
In the early 1740s, John Michael Rysbrack faced growing competition from other expatriate sculptors such as Peter Scheemakers and Louis François Roubiliac. According to the artist and antiquarian George Vertue, by 1744, Rysbrack found “himself somewhat at leisure, business not being so brisk as had been with him some years before. He therefore set himself about a Model of Hercules.” (A painting of Rysbrack working on the model is shown nearby). The experiment proved successful. In 1747, Henry Hoare, a wealthy landowner and banker, commissioned a six-foot marble version of Rysbrack’s Hercules for the new Pantheon he had erected in his garden at Stourhead, Wiltshire. The marble was completed in 1756, and this bust is a model for the statue’s head and shoulders. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016