Friday 22 July 2016

Equestrian Statue of Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur.




Equestrian Statue of Charles I
Bronze
by Hubert Le Sueur.
1633.
Charing Cross.

Looking down Whitehall to his place of execution.
































These photographs lifted from http://www.speel.me.uk/draw/drawhorse.htm





Charles I, Trafalgar Square






charles I





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The Royal Collection Bronze Equestrian Statuette of Charles I
Hubert le Sueur





 






size 33.0 x 27.0 x 11.0 cm (excluding base/stand)

Gilt-bronze equestrian statuette of Charles I depicted in full armour, holding a staff in his right hand. Set on an ebony plinth with bronze foliate borders inset with a gilt bronze roundel of St.George and Dragon. Related to Hubert Le Sueur's equestrian statue of Charles I from circa 1633, this is probably the first bronze reduction of an equestrian portrait of an English sovereign and it has been suggested that it could be identified with Charles I's 'picture of horseback upon a black wooden Peddistall belonging to - Sommersett House' listed in the Van der Doort's inventory from circa 1639. 

Provenance

Bought by H.M. Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1947 (from Collection of Mary, Lady Millais). Bought by the Prince Regent (Lord Yarmouth) at Squibbs auction 1813. Possibly belonged to Louis XVI based on design for statue XV in the Palace Royale Rouen 1776 (never executed).


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Northumberland House behind







Engraving
Royal Collection


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The Statue of King Charles I at Charing Cross, by Wenceslaus Hollar, after  Hubert Le Sueur, mid 17th century - NPG D26343 - © National Portrait Gallery, London




Bronze Equestrian Statue of Charles I (1600 - 49) by Hubert Le Sueur (1580 - 1670).
by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607 - 1677),
Etching, mid 17th century.
pub. Henry Overton.
Plate size - 395 mm x 310 mm.





Equestrian statue of Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur.  Engraving



Anonymous Engraving of Charles I.


Lettered with title at top left, 'D' at lower right and description in lower margin: "This Portraiture was drawne from the magnigicent Figure cast in brasse by that most famous Artist Monsieur Le Sueur Ano Dny 1633 exceeding the Proportion of the life being almost 10 foot high, and with great hazzard charge & care preserved under ground by John Revet Brasier living at Holborn Conduit at ye Diall"
520 x 407 mm.
British Museum
Curators Comment lifted from the BM Website.
Italic mine.

Information from Christine Stevenson (personal communication, July 2012): By 1644 Richard Weston, Earl of Portland and Charles I's former Lord Treasurer, was dead and the statue of Charles I which he had commissioned from Le Sueur formed part of an estate sequestrated that year. As such it was sold off to a consortium of Covent Garden residents, including the royal Surveyor Edward Carter; they may have intended it for the piazza, on the pattern of Paris's Place Royale (now Place des Vosges), which received its equestrian figure of Louis XIII in 1639.
Richard Weston 1577 - 1635, bought Roehampton House in 1624. In 1628 was made Lord Weston of Neyland, and in 1633 was created First Earl of Portland
Made originally for erection in Weston's Garden at Roehampton House now in the borough of Wandsworth. The Dutch architect Balthasar Gerbier was employed to remodel the house and garden and is believed to have had a hand in commissioning the statue
By 1650 the Council of State was trying to establish who owned the Covent Garden statue. Carter claimed it, and then sold it to the brazier John Revet, who in 1662 testified that he had been ordered 'by some officer at Whitehall ... to breake ye said statue in peices to ye end That nothing might Remaine in memorie of his said Majestie', but he had buried it instead.
The story remained well known. The even better story, that Revet made a fortune selling cutlery handles supposedly formed out of the royal bronze to royalists and republicans alike, is unfortunately not true. (Ball, R. M. 'On the statue of King Charles at Charing Cross', Antiquaries Journal 67 (1987): 97-101, on p. 97.)
Revet lost no time in advertising the statue after the Restoration, having an engraving of it made, 'for publique view in Memory of his said Late Majestie'; its letterpress underlined his 'great hazard charge & care' in defending this memorial. (Ball 1987, pp. 100, 99, who believed that no copies of the print had survived.) He then settled with the Portlands, from whom the king then bought the piece, for £1600, in April 1675. ( The Treasury papers relevant to the purchase are calendared in CTB 1669-72, p. 1009 (12 January 1672) and CTB 1672-75, pp. 306 (19 April 1675), 732 (30 April), and 745 (26 May).) It was subsequently erected, with a new plinth, in what is now Trafalgar Square, where it remains today.








Equestrian Statues of Charles I, Charing Cross, and Charles II in the Stocks Market.
Standing Statue of Charles II, Royal Exchange.
 Royal Collection.



The statue of Charles I on horseback, marking the site of Charing Cross, dedicated by permission to his grace the Duke of Northumerland. Published in April 1792.


Engraving
 1792
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The Pillory Charing Cross. Plate 62 from Micocosm of London, 1809.


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Portrait of Hubert Le Sueur, half-length, with curly hair, short beard and moustache, wearing a cloak, his hand on a sculpted head in lower right; lettered state Mezzotint



Hubert le Sueur
 after van Dyck
Mezzotint by Jan van Somer
circa 1670 - 1680.
222 x 172 mm.

Previously in the Collection of Michael Rysbrack - Collection mark at bottom right.



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Night by William Hogarth with the Equestrian Statue of Charles I in the background.
British Museum.




View in Charing Cross with the equestrian statue of Charles I standing high on its raised pedestal in the centre, surrounded by iron railings at the bottom; a street coming off the square continues into the background.  1707  Etching
1707.
British Museum



View in Charing Cross showing the equestrian statue of Charles I on a large raised pedestal, with iron railings around the bottom and a circular base, bollards surround base leaving a gap of a few metres creating a pathway around statue; sedan chairs stand within bollards, coaches travel around statue on the street, the entrance to the Mews on the right. c.1725  Etching and engraving




Lettered with title on scroll in sky, and with publication line within image at bottom of statue: "London Sold by Iohn Bowles Print and Map Seller over against Stocks Market", and below at right "Sutton Nicholls delin et sculp.
1725.
British Museum.

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View of a square with large roads coming off, in the centre on a tall plinth an equestrian statue of Charles I, surrounded by iron railings and on a circular base, a sedan chair, carriages and figures in square. 1740  Etching and engraving



Maurer
1740.
British Museum.

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View of Northumberland House from Charing Cross, the equestrian statue of Charles I on the right; illustration from London and its Environs Described.  1761  Etching
James Green after Samuel Wale
1761
British Museum

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View in Charing Cross by the equestrian statue of Charles I; a man with a bare back pushes  a cart as another man whips him from behind, a large crowd stands to watch.  1752  Etching


1752

British Museum.
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View in Charing Cross looking west towards Northumberland House, the Golden Cross Inn on the left, the equestrian statue of Charles I on the right.  1753  Etching

Print by Thomas Bowles III after Canaletto.
1753
British Museum



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Charing X by Canaletto


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View in Charing Cross showing figures revelling in square; in the centre a lady lies draped over a basket held up by a man over his head, to their left a man sweeps his arm around a woman looking the other way, other figures behind  and on the right an old lady sits by a low table with a large jug; the equestrian statue of Charles I in the background.  1756  Etching and engraving


Louis Phillipe Boitard
1756
British Museum

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View in Charing Cross looking towards Northumberland House; in the foreground to right is the equestrian statue of Charles I on a raised plinth surrounded by iron railings, figures lounge around base of statue, a coach passes on the left; illustration to the Picturesque Tour.  1795  Etching and aquatint


Thomas Malton 1795
British Museum.


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View down a street looking towards Charing Cross, with Northumberland House on the left, the equestrian statue of Charles I at mid-distance; illustration to the Picturesque Tour.  1795  Etching and aquatint



Thomas Malton
1795
British Museum.
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View in Charing Cross, with the equestrian statue of Charles I on the right, the Strand curving away into the distance; a carriage and a cart in the foreground; illustration from Ackermann's The Repository of Arts, part 26 volume 5.  1811  Etching with hand-colouring


View in Charing Cross, with the equestrian statue of Charles I on the right, the Strand curving away into the distance; a carriage and a cart in the foreground; illustration from Ackermann's The Repository of Arts, part 26 volume 5. 1811 Etching with hand-colouring
© The Trustees of the British Museum.


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View in Charing Cross; to the left can be seen the portico of St Martin in the Fields, beside it si Morley's Hotel and beyond that the corner turret of Nash's West Strand improvement; on the right is Northumberland House with twin lead-capped turrets and a central lion; in foreground to right is the equestrian statue of Charles I with 'T.S.Boys 1841' inscribed on the pedestal, a group of boys sit below, to the left a water cart laying the summer dust, a hansom cab and a striking pair of equestrians.  1842  Lithograph


Thomas Shotter Boys


View in Charing Cross; to the left can be seen the portico of St Martin in the Fields, beside it si Morley's Hotel and beyond that the corner turret of Nash's West Strand improvement; on the right is Northumberland House with twin lead-capped turrets and a central lion; in foreground to right is the equestrian statue of Charles I with 'T.S.Boys 1841' inscribed on the pedestal, a group of boys sit below, to the left a water cart laying the summer dust, a hansom cab and a striking pair of equestrians. 1842 Lithograph

© The Trustees of the British Museum



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