Show me:
and
Clear all filters

  • 33 items
  • 25 items Explore
  • 89 items
  • 3,547 items Explore
  • 97 items Explore
  • 14 items
  • 4 items
  • 220 items
  • 13,930 items Explore
  • 211 items Explore
  • 1,225 items Explore
  • 8,754 items Explore
  • 5,137 items Explore
  • 62 items Explore
  • 165 items Explore
  • 13,188 items Explore
  • 13,620 items Explore
  • 4,802 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 5 items
  • 149 items Explore
  • 2,002 items Explore
  • 4,758 items Explore
  • 438 items Explore
  • 267 items
  • 105 items Explore
  • 19,978 items Explore
  • 36 items Explore
  • 1,915 items Explore
  • 1,083 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 2,250 items Explore
  • 455 items Explore
  • 918 items Explore
  • 1 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 7 items
  • 20,392 items Explore
  • 800 items Explore
  • 19 items
  • 73 items Explore
  • 33 items
  • 792 items
  • 20 items
  • 4 items
  • 26 items
  • 61 items
  • 28 items
  • 320 items Explore
  • 6 items
  • 44 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 2 items
  • 2 items
  • 8 items
  • 122 items Explore
  • 119 items
  • 1 items
  • 926 items Explore
  • 724 items
  • 95 items
  • 38,156 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,880 items Explore
  • 1,533 items Explore
  • 403 items
  • 125 items Explore
  • 10,752 items Explore
  • 9,683 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 1 items
  • 38 items
  • 3 items
  • 4 items
  • 6,781 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 7,365 items Explore
  • 4,968 items Explore
  • 2,005 items Explore
  • 1,195 items Explore
  • 24,465 items Explore
  • 3,660 items Explore
  • 17 items
  • 5 items
  • 334 items
  • 107 items
  • 1 items
  • 3,374 items Explore
  • 23 items Explore
  • 374 items Explore
  • 796 items Explore
  • 1,087 items Explore
  • 514 items Explore
  • 1,519 items Explore
  • 89 items
  • 125 items Explore
  • 6,953 items Explore
  • 76 items
  • 108 items
  • 4 items
  • 2 items
  • 63 items
  • 2 items
  • 2,931 items Explore
  • 1,344 items Explore
  • 203 items
  • 90 items
  • 22,306 items Explore
  • 1,347 items Explore
  • 138 items
  • 848 items Explore
  • 32 items
  • 1 items
  • 122 items Explore
  • 40 items
  • 20 items
  • 252 items
  • 314 items
  • 687 items Explore
  • 344 items Explore
  • 2,429 items
  • 2,535 items
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,395 items Explore
  • 40,361 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,293 items Explore
  • 275 items Explore
  • 8,896 items Explore
  • 31 items
  • 25 items
  • 304 items Explore
  • 776 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 65 items
  • 161 items
  • 50 items
  • 52 items
  • 24,192 items Explore
  • 916 items
  • 65 items
  • 22,650 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 2,336 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 1,028 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 759 items
  • 499 items
  • 4 items
  • 3,310 items Explore
  • 179 items
  • 59 items
  • 455 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 21 items
  • 90 items Explore
  • 76 items
  • 281 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 6 items
  • 128 items
  • 295 items
  • 447 items
  • 287 items
  • 1 items
  • 906 items Explore
  • 276 items Explore
  • 505 items
  • 11,300 items Explore
  • 755 items Explore
  • 6,025 items Explore
  • 8,378 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 1 items
  • 5,972 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 3,725 items Explore
  • 9,182 items Explore
  • 7,886 items Explore
  • 182 items
  • 19 items
  • 144 items
  • 7 items
  • 854 items Explore
  • 19 items
  • 8 items
  • 1,096 items Explore
  • 270 items
  • 1 items
  • 2,120 items
  • 1 items
  • 3,543 items Explore
  • 695 items Explore
  • 18 items
  • 134 items
  • 6,738 items Explore
  • 95 items
  • 18,936 items Explore
  • 3,137 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 7 items
  • 11,005 items Explore
  • 37 items
  • 2 items
  • 21,447 items Explore
  • 35 items
  • 13,324 items Explore
  • 3,460 items Explore
  • 5,644 items Explore
  • 33 items
  • 52,200 items Explore
  • 41 items
  • 646 items Explore
  • 417 items
  • 26,949 items Explore
  • 216 items
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 35 items
  • 27 items
  • 445 items Explore
  • 636 items
  • 217 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 13,766 items Explore
  • 1,361 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 10,260 items
  • 9 items
  • 10 items
  • 14 items
  • 25 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,537 items Explore
  • 913 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 318 items
  • 505 items Explore
  • 42 items
  • 2,289 items Explore
  • 1,668 items Explore
  • 15 items
  • 1,877 items Explore
  • 150 items
  • 80 items
  • 766 items Explore
  • 3,094 items Explore
  • 40 items
  • 17 items
  • 12 items
  • 10,670 items Explore
  • 23,782 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 41 items
  • 1,374 items
  • 177 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 92 items
  • 1 items
  • 13,586 items Explore
  • 3,642 items Explore
  • 2,903 items Explore
  • 4,534 items Explore
  • 22 items
  • 30 items
  • 6,911 items Explore
  • 4,842 items Explore
  • 2,300 items Explore
  • 2,820 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 1,899 items Explore
  • 191 items
  • 223 items Explore
  • 421 items Explore
  • 6,111 items Explore
  • 8,729 items Explore
  • 1,837 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 5,943 items Explore
  • 3,354 items Explore
  • 11,134 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 84 items
  • 11 items
  • 2,515 items Explore
  • 7 items
  • 24 items
  • 51 items
  • 6 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,297 items Explore
  • 611 items Explore
  • 75 items
  • 17 items
  • 155 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 95 items Explore
  • 458 items
  • 1 items
  • 996 items Explore
  • 3,614 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 5 items
  • 9,762 items Explore
  • 48 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 7 items
  • 42 items
  • 3 items
  • 13,808 items Explore
  • 1,167 items Explore
  • 92 items
  • 10,569 items Explore
  • 1,920 items
  • 18 items
  • 6,139 items Explore
  • 21 items
  • 12,949 items Explore
  • 1,418 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 6,176 items Explore
  • 14,888 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 1,667 items Explore
  • 181 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 16 items
  • 5,683 items Explore
  • 12,284 items Explore
  • 48 items
  • 25 items
  • 2 items
  • 3 items
  • 7,191 items Explore
  • 357 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 6 items
  • 103 items Explore
  • 7 items
  • 5 items
  • 485 items
  • 688 items Explore
  • 8,409 items Explore
  • 58 items
  • 1 items
  • 7,347 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 26 items
  • 4,742 items Explore
  • 428 items
  • 339 items Explore
  • 12,715 items Explore
  • 55 items
  • 20 items
  • 7 items
  • 4 items
  • 325 items Explore
  • 427 items
  • 458 items
  • 3,693 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 1,237 items Explore
  • 2,503 items Explore
  • 1,287 items Explore
  • 36 items
  • 1,139 items Explore
  • 97 items Explore
  • 24 items
  • 229 items Explore
  • 80,462 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,139 items Explore
  • 2,871 items Explore
  • 24 items
  • 5,352 items Explore
  • 1,831 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 17,513 items Explore
  • 4,931 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 7 items
  • 631 items Explore
  • 85 items
  • 31 items
  • 1 items
  • 76 items
  • 29 items
  • 86 items
  • 3 items
  • 1,176 items Explore
  • 109 items
  • 805 items
  • 13,210 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 13 items
  • 1,710 items Explore
  • 217 items
  • 17,041 items Explore
  • 85 items
  • 17 items
  • 1 items
  • 8 items
  • 324 items
  • 2 items
  • 631 items Explore
  • 1,592 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 1,130 items Explore
  • 388 items
  • 2 items
  • 355 items

Select a time period

Or choose a specific year

Clear all filters

Portrait bust of the Hon. Elizabeth Albana Upton, Marchioness of Bristol (1775-1844)

Lorenzo Bartolini (Vernio, Tuscany 1777 – Florence 1850)

Category

Art / Sculpture

Date

1818 - 1819

Materials

Marble

Measurements

720 mm high

Place of origin

Florence

Order this image

Collection

Ickworth, Suffolk

NT 852210

Summary

Sculpture, marble; Portrait bust of the Hon. Elizabeth Albana Upton, Marchioness of Bristol (1775-1844); Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850); Florence, c. 1818-19. Elizabeth Albana Upton married in 1798 Lord Frederick William Hervey, later 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769-1859), with whom she had a large family of nine children. Between 1817 and 1821 the entire family embarked on a European tour, including at least two visits to Florence, in 1817 and then again in 1818/19. It must have been during this second visit that a number of portrait busts of members of the family were commissioned from the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, who became celebrated for portraying almost every British visitor of note to the city.

Full description

A marble portrait bust of the Hon. Elizabeth Albana Upton, Marchioness of Bristol (1775-1844), by Lorenzo Bartolini. The sitter is depicted facing to her left, her hair parted in the centre and falling in curls around her face, partly covering her ears, tied up at the back and into a series of ringlets. She wears a dress in the form of the Greek garment known as a chiton, fastened with button-like clasps at each shoulder whilst, around the lower part of the bust, a shawl twists and wraps around the sitter’s body. Mounted on a waisted marble socle. Elizabeth Albana Upton was youngest of the three daughters of the Anglo-Irish courtier and peer, Clotworthy Upton, 1st Baron Templetown (1721-1785). Her mother was Elizabeth Upton (née Boughton; 1747-1823), who practised as an artist, making designs for Wedgwood but also working as a sculptor – several of her sculptures are at Ickworth, including portraits of her son-in-law (NT 852209) and her two eldest grandchildren (NT 852216 and 852217). Clotworthy Upton and his wife undertook an Italian tour between 1773 and 1775, towards the end of which Elizabeth Albana Upton was born in August 1775. Her birthplace was the town of Albano south-east of Rome, hence her unusual middle name of 'Albana'. In 1798 Elizabeth married Lord Frederick William Hervey, later 5th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769-1859). The marriage had been at first vehemently opposed by Lord Frederick’s father the 4th Earl ‘Earl Bishop’, who disliked his son and had wanted him to marry Marianne von der Marck, the illegitimate daughter of the King of Prussia. The 5th Earl turned out to be a great deal more responsible as a head of the family, than his father had ever been. His and Elizabeth’s marriage seems to have been a happy one, the couple having six sons and three daughters together. There is a fine posthumous painted portrait of Elizabeth Hervey by Sir Francis Grant at Ickworth (NT 851725), whilst the Albana walk in the grounds of the house is named after her. This bust is one of a group of portraits of three members of his family commissioned by the 5th Earl during a visit to Florence, in 1818 or 1819. As well as the portrait of his wife, Lorenzo Bartolini sculpted a portrait of the Earl himself, which today is not at Ickworth but rather at Felbrigg (NT 1401967). There are two versions of different sizes at Ickworth of the portrait of the Herveys’ eldest daughter Augusta (NT 852215 and 852223), whilst another full-size version of the portrait bust of Elizabeth Upton was sold at auction in 1987, after having descended through another branch of the Hervey family (Sotheby’s London, 7 April 1987, lot 197), with yet another recorded in the 1950s at Bignor Park (Nares 1956, p. 863, fig. 11). The travel journal kept for 1817 by the Herveys’ daughter Lady Augusta Hervey (see NT 852223 for further discussion) describes the Hervey family, parents, all nine children and numerous servants, visiting Florence briefly in November 1817, before moving on to Rome. There is no mention at this time of any visit to Bartolini’s studio, so the busts must have been ordered and sat to during a second longer visit to the city, in 1818 or 1819, for which years unfortunately Augusta either kept no journal or else it has been lost. By 1820 the family was in Paris, where the Herveys' spent the whole year, only returning to Ickworth in May 1821. The Herveys were among many British visitors to Florence in the years after Waterloo, who found their way to the studio of Lorenzo Bartolini. Regarded in his lifetime as one of the very greatest European sculptors, Bartolini was trained in the neo-classical tradition that reached a height of popularity in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Born to a poor family, he grew up and undertook early training as a sculptor in Florence, before moving to Volterra, to study with the French sculptor in alabaster, Barthélemy Corneille (c. 1760–1812). Whilst working for Corneille, Bartolini came across drawings by the British neo-classical sculptor John Flaxman (1755-1826), which made an enormous impact on him. A supporter of the revolutionary movements sweeping through Europe at this time, Bartolini served in the French army before moving to Paris, where he worked in the studio of the painter Jacques-Louis David. He also at this time struck up a close friendship with another up-and-coming painter, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Bartolini had always been closely interested in Italian art of the earlier periods and, as his career developed, his style evolved towards a manner that reflected more closely the contemporary revival of interest in the art of the Renaissance. Bartolini became one of the favoured artists of the Emperor Napoleon I and his entourage, even following the defeated emperor into exile on the island of Elba in 1814. After Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo and his exile from Europe on St. Helena, Lorenzo Bartolini established his studio in Florence, but his reputation as a diehard Bonapartist meant that for a long time he was denied access to larger public commissions. Instead he was obliged to make his living largely through privately commissioned sculpted portraits, soon becoming the most fashionable portrait sculptor in Florence. He made portraits of many of the foreign visitors, a good number of them British and Irish, who flocked to Florence after peace had finally returned to Europe. Bartolini himself estimated that he had between 1816 and 1846 made and dispatched to his clients around 500 portrait busts (Tinti 1936, II, p. 11). The surviving contents of his studio, now in the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, includes around 300 surviving models for these portrait busts, as well as most of the models for his funerary and ideal sculptures. The plaster model for the portrait bust of Elizabeth Hervey survives in the studio collection at the Accademia (Inv. Sculture 1445; Bartolini 1978, p. 71). Over a period of some four decades, Bartolini’s studio was on the itinerary of almost every wealthy British, French or other foreign visitor to Florence. In 1821 the Irish writer Sydney (Lady) Morgan published her description of her visit, writing that ‘the studio of a sculptor is always a delightful place to visit: that of Signore Bartolini is particularly so to an English traveller, because it is a 'brief abstract and chronicle of the times" and country to which he belongs; where a physiognomist might give a lecture on British heads, from subjects supplied by those three great councils of the nation — the House of Lords, the House of Commons, and Almack's. There is scarcely a living bust in Great Britain, on which fashion has set her mark, or notoriety stamped her signature, that may not be found in the studio and galleries of Signore Bartolini, dispersed among the heads of antique sages or republican worthies.’ (Morgan 1821, II, p. 165). Three decades later in 1847, the British painter William Blundell Spence (1814-1900), who was resident in Florence, wrote that: ‘About the middle of the street is a small wooden door; this is the entrance to the studio of the famous sculptor Bartolini, whose name is known all over Europe. Bartolini has risen entirely by his own merit and talents […] There has been scarcely any person of note who has passed through Florence for the past 30 years, but that he has had his bust executed by Bartolini, so that his studio is a sort of museum of celebrities present and past’. (Spence 1847, p. 10). According to Spence, Lorenzo Bartolini sought in his work to move away from the rigid neo-classicism popular in France in the decades around 1800 and, instead, to form ‘a particular school and style of his own, with this maxim for its base, study and copy nature as closely as you can.’ Although inevitably with such a large production, there are repetitions in poses, concepts and dress, Lorenzo Bartolini’s portrait busts do collectively demonstrate a genuine attempt to evoke the characters and individuality of their subjects. His bust of Elizabeth Hervey, who would have been around forty when she was portrayed, is beautifully carved and a fine portrayal of a confident, mature beauty. It makes a fascinating contrast with the fresher youthful beauty to be seen in Bartolini’s portraits at Ickworth of her daughter Augusta (NT852223). Like almost all Bartolini’s busts of his British female sitters, the portrait busts of both women feature the standard dress for many of his female sitters, a robe in classicising style recalling the ancient Greek ‘chiton’ , with a twisted shawl around the upper arms. Other bust portraits using this formula include those of Lady Frederica Murray of 1819 at Scone Palace (Kenworthy-Browne 2014, pp. 48-49, fig. 1) and Countess Maria Potocka of c. 1820, at Chatsworth (Tinti 1936, II, p. 39, no. 33, Pl. XXI). The formula is virtually unchanged in later works such as the 1845 portrait bust of the dancer Yolande Lyne Stephens, at Oxburgh Hall (NT 1210487), or that of the marchesa Luisa Pallavicini Sauli, begun in 1845 and completed in 1846, in the Negrotto Cambiaso collection in Genoa (Tinti 1936, II, p. 87, Tav. LXXX; Bartolini 2011, pp. 139-41, fig.3). Jeremy Warren July 2025

Provenance

Commissioned by Lord Frederick William Hervey, 5th Earl and later 1st Marquess of Bristol (1769-1859), 1818-19; by descent; acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.

Credit line

Ickworth House, The Bristol Collectioin (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1966)

Makers and roles

Lorenzo Bartolini (Vernio, Tuscany 1777 – Florence 1850), sculptor

Exhibition history

Lorenzo Bartolini: Ideal Beauty and Natural Beauty, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, 2011 - 2012, no.26b

References

Morgan 1821: Sydney, Lady Morgan (c. 1783-1859), Italy, 3 vols., London 1821 Spence 1847: [William Blundell Spence], The Lions of Florence and its Environs, Florence 1847 Tinti 1936 Mario Tinti, Lorenzo Bartolini, 1936 Nares 1956: Gordon Nares, ‘Bignor Park, Sussex’, Country Life, 26 April and 3 May 1956, pp. 860-63 and 924-27 Bartolini 1978: Lorenzo Bartolini. Mostra delle attività di tutela, exh. cat. Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, Florence 1978, p. 71, Busti no. 2 (gesso) Kenworthy-Browne 1978: John Kenworthy-Browne, 'Sculptor and revolutionary. British portraits by Bartolini', Country Life. 8 June 1978, pp.1655-56, p. 1655, fig. 2. London 2006: Citizens and kings: portraits in the Age of Revolution 1760-1830, exh.cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London 2006, pp. 108, 293, no. 35. Bartolini 2011: Franca Falletti, Silvestra Bietoletti and Annarita Caputo, eds., Lorenzo Bartolini. Scultore del bello naturale, exh.cat. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence 2011, p. 236-37, no. 26b. Lorenzo Bartolini Beauty and Truth in Marble (Franca Falletti, Silvestra Bietoletti, Annarita Caputo), Galleria dell'Accademia 31st May - 6th November 2011, no. 26b, pp. 236-7 Kenworthy-Browne 2014: John Kenworthy-Browne, ‘Rediscovering Bartolini’s busts and statues in Britain’ in Silvestra Bietoletti, Annarita Caputo and Franca Falletti, eds., Lorenzo Bartolini. Atti delle Giornate di Studio, Pistoia 2014, pp. 48-60, pp. 48-60, p. 50. Caputo and Melloni Franceschini 2016: Annarita Caputo and Silvia Melloni Franceschini, Lorenzo Bartolini. Nuove prospettive fra Carrara e Firenze, Pisa 2016, p. 31, note 69.

View more details