Richard James Wyatt (1795-1850), A WHITE MARBLE BUST OF A YOUNG NYMPH, CIRCA 1830-1850

Lot description

RICHARD JAMES WYATT (1795-1850), A WHITE MARBLE BUST OF A YOUNG NYMPH CIRCA 1830-1850 On a turned socle and octagonal plinth, signed to the reverse R. J WYATT ROMAE 51cm high, the base 23cm wide Provenance: Muriel Emily ('Molly') Ashley (née Spencer) (d.1954), 2nd wife of Wilfred William Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple, at Broadlands, Hampshire, and thence by descent to her niece, The Hon. Angela Delevingne (née Greenwood) (1912-2014). The grandson of the architect James Wyatt, Wyatt studied alongside John Gibson in Rome under Canova and Thorvaldsen. A frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he settled in Rome and exhibited 10 works at The Great Exhibition and was awarded one of the four first-class gold medals retrospectively.This head is derived from a full length work by Wyatt Nymph Bathing, an example of which is held by English Heritage, at Wrest Park (Accession number 88272040). Wyatt designed Nymph going to the Bath in 1831, originally for Maximilian de Beauharnais, Duc de Leuchtenburg, and exhibited the original at the Royal Academy in 1831. A comparable example of a depiction of just the head of a nymph by Wyatt is held in the National Trust Collection at Tyntesfield, North Somerset, acquired from Marseille Middleton Holloway (25 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London) by William Gibbs (for £57 15s for the pair) in 1861 (NT 20163).