Wellington sat for this colossal bust at the Royal Mint on Waterloo Day in 1832. The bust is signed and dated ‘B. Pisctrucci, Royal Mint, 1832′. Wellington bought the bust from the sculptor for 100 guineas.
Another version is in the Institute for Directors (formerly United Services Club) and a bust which was given by Wellington to his daughter-in-law, Lady Douro, is still in the family collection.
Sculptor and medallist, Pistrucci had worked in Rome until 1814 when he moved to Paris and then London. In 1816 he started working for the Royal Mint, where Wellington’s brother, William Wellesley Pole was Master.
In 1817 he produced the design for the new gold sovereign with St George and the dragon, which was so popular that it was also used for the gold five-pound piece and silver crowns during George IV’s reign.
By 1828 he was Chief Medallist and working on the design for the Waterloo Medal, which was never cast in his lifetime due to its size and complexity.
However in 2015 the Royal Mint issued a limited edition of the medal and 200 years after Waterloo representatives of the victorious allied nations received their medals in a ceremony at Apsley House.
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (Lord Castlereagh)
Sir Frances Chantrey (1781-1841)
Lord Castlereagh was Foreign Secretary from 1812 to 1822 in Lord Liverpool’s government. He was one of the chief architects of the Treaty of Vienna which brought Europe together after the fall of Napoleon.
He had made his mark in Pitt’s government, overseeing the Act of Union which dismantled the Irish Parliament in 1801. He became increasingly unpopular, especially after the Peterloo Massacre and he took his own life in 1822.
This sculpture is a copy of the one now in the collections of the National Trust for Northern Ireland and on display at Mount Stewart. The Apsley House variant is dated 1822.
Sir Frances Chantrey came from a village near Sheffield in the north of England and was apprenticed to a wood carver and gilder called Ramsay. Through Ramsay he met John Raphael Smith, an artist, who recognised his skill and artistic potential. Chantrey eventually studied stone carving and oil painting at the Royal Academy.
He was recognised as one of the greatest sculptors of his day and was knighted by William IV in 1835. He died suddenly in 1842, leaving a fortune, most of which went to the Royal Academy.
Presented to the 1st Duke of Wellington by the sculptor Canova, this bust arrived in England in 1818. This is one of four made by Canova for the leading British statesmen involved in the restitution of Italian art works after the Battle of Waterloo.
The four ‘ideal heads’ as they were called epitomised female beauty. Taking his inspiration from the great classical busts of antiquity, Canova created four ‘ideal’ forms of female beauty.
The other busts were given to, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (now at Mount Stewart, National Trust), Sir Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas), Sir William Hamilton (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).
The Apsley House bust is unique in that there are no other versions, however it does resemble the head of Canova’s ‘Dancer with her hands on her hips’ commissioned by Napoleon’s wife Josephine.
The Empress Josephine’s statue later became the property of Tsar Alexander I and is now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Antonio Canova was considered the greatest neo-classical sculptor of his day. He was renowned for his carving abilities and the refinement of his finished surfaces.
Commissioned by Napoleon in 1802 this colossal statue of the Emperor was sculpted by Canova in Rome. Completed in 1806 the statue did not arrive in Paris until 1811.
It was unveiled at the Musée de Napoleon (now the Louvre), however Napoleon did not like the statue, it was ‘too athletic’ he declared and the statue was never put on public display.
After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo the allied armies entered Paris. There was a lot of interest in re-claiming artworks that had been taken by the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
The restored French monarch Louis XVIII had instructed the director of the museum to “make all the paintings with the effigy of Bonaparte disappear from the royal palaces and houses”.
After much negotiation the British purchased the statue and the Prince Regent (later George IV) presented it to Wellington in 1816.
When the statue arrived at Apsley House the only possible location was at the bottom of the grand stair case, the wine cellar beneath the statue had to be strengthened to take the 13 ton weight.
Antonio Canova was considered the greatest neo-classical sculptor of his day. He was renowned for his carving abilities and the refinement of his finished surfaces.
The Apsley House bust is the second version of Chantrey’s commission by the Earl of Liverpool in 1821 or 1822 when Wellington was a member of the cabinet. The first version is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
This bust was commissioned by Wellington for Charles and Harriet Arbuthnot who were close friends.
After Harriet Arbuthnot’s death in 1834, Charles, a former diplomat and politician, came to live at Apsley House and died there in 1850. The bust must have come to the house with Mr Arbuthnot after 1834.
Sir Frances Chantrey came from a village near Sheffield in the north of England, he was apprenticed to a wood carver and gilder called Ramsay.
Through Ramsay he met John Raphael Smith, an artist, who recognised his skill and artistic potential. Chantrey eventually studied stone carving and oil painting at the Royal Academy.
He was recognised as one of the greatest sculptors of his day and was knighted by William IV in 1835. He died suddenly in 1842, leaving a fortune, most of which went to the Royal Academy.
Figure of a river god, part of the Prussian dinner service
Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764-1850)
The Prussian dinner service was a gift from Frederick William III, King of Prussia to Wellington. The largest and most elaborate dinner service made between 1817 and 1819 in the porcelain factory in Berlin.
The centrepiece of the service is an elaborate ceramic obelisk surrounded by eight figures of river gods designed by Johan Gottfreid Schadow.
This figure is biscuit porcelain and depicts the god of the river Tejo in Portugal; he is shown reclining on an overflowing vase of water.
Schadow was a German sculptor who is credited with founding the Modern School of Berlin sculptors. He studied in Rome under Canova and is perhaps best known for this ‘Quadriga of Victory’ (1793) which sits on top of the Brandenburg Gate.
His designs show the influence of classical antiquity, his river gods in particular hark back to the marble figures of the Nile and the Tiber which Schadow had probably seen in Rome.
The river gods were made by the master modeller of the Berlin factory Johann Carl Friedrich Riese.
