The Harvest
William Collins I (London 1721 - Tothill 1793)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1760 - 1763
Materials
Stone
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108112.1
Summary
Stone, the harvest, medallion with relief scene depicting the harvest, William Collins I (London 1721–Tothill 1793), c. 1760-63. One of a set of five medallions by William Collins installed on the façade of the North Front portico. Carved with a relief scene depicting a reclining nude man beneath a tree, taking a rest from reaping the field of wheat in the background. In the hand of his outstretched arm he holds a sickle and gestures towards a young man who has returned from the hunt. The huntsman carries a dead hare on a pole and is led by a greyhound.
Full description
William Collins was a sculptor in marble and modeler in plaster renowned for his pastoral, mythological and religious scenes. A pupil of Sir Henry Cheere (1703-81), Collins was one of the founding members of The Society of Artists, Britain's first exhibiting society. In 1763 he set up his own workshop in Westminster which specialised in decorative sculpture for country houses. At Harewood House and Kedleston Hall he worked under the architect and designer Robert Adam (1728-92), producing for Kedleston this suite of medallions for the North Front portico and a pair of medallions depicting two of the themes he had used there, the vintage and harvest, reinterpreted for the appropriate setting of a Dining Room (NT 109025.1 and 109025.2). The portico was completed in 1763, to Robert Adam's designs (NT 109418 and NT 109422). The medallions can be clearly seen in the drawings, set above a scheme of lead statues by John Cheere (NT 108726.1-4). Alice Rylance-Watson April 2019
Provenance
Purchased by Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale (1726-1804); identifiable in the Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston, 1769, p. 4, Basso-relievo Medallions; purchased with part of the contents of Kedleston Hall with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1986 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000).
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
William Collins I (London 1721 - Tothill 1793), sculptor
References
Harris 1987: Leslie Harris and Gervase Jackson-Stops (ed.), Robert Adam and Kedleston: The Making of a Neo-Classical Masterpiece, London 1987, pp. 22, no. 7, 34, nos. 19-20