Portrait bust of Samuel Rogers (1763-1835)
Jean-Pierre Dantan (Paris 1800 - Baden-Baden 1869)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1 Jun 1833
Materials
Plaster
Measurements
318 x 184 x 153 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1221048
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; Samuel Rogers (1763-1855); Dantan jeune (Jean-Pierre Dantan, 1800-1869); 1833. A satirical portrait of the poet, banker and collector Samuel Rogers, a bust-length portrait showing the subject with his arms crossed, holding a manuscript and a quill pen. One of a group of seven such caricatures , known in French as ‘portraits chargés’ or ‘charges’, made by the French sculptor and satirist Dantan jeune during his first stay in London in 1833, brought to Mount Stewart from Londonderry House.
Full description
A portrait chargé or satirical portrait of the poet Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), depicting the subject at bust length, wearing a frock coat, his arms crossed and his right hand, holding a quill pen, tucked under the coat. A rolled manuscript is also held into the corner of his right arm. Rogers looks slightly downwards, with a disapproving expression, his eyes and eyelashes much exaggerated. The bust stands upon a book which in turn is on a rectangular base, on the front of which is painted in ink ROGERS. Signed and dated on the back of the base. Although he is largely forgotten today, during his lifetime Samuel Rogers was widely regarded as one of the greatest poets writing in English. His most famous work was his long poem Italy, published in two parts in 1822 and 1826, which became hugely successful after the publication in 1830 of an edition with illustrations by Turner and other artists. Rogers, who was a banker, was on friendly terms with many writers such as Byron, Scott and Wordsworth, and his memoirs have become an important source for the lives of many of his contemporaries. Samuel Rogers also built a distinguished art collection. The sculpture is one of a group of seven satirical statuettes by Dantan jeune at Mount Stewart (NT 1221043-1221049), all made during the sculptor’s first visits to London in 1833 and 1834. They consist of five British subjects, mostly politicians: Duke of Wellington; Earl of Sefton (two); Samuel Rogers and Lord Brougham; and two well-known Frenchmen resident in London at the time, the diplomat Talleyrand and the comte d’Orsay. Dantan jeune (Jean-Pierre Dantan, 1800-1869) was a successful portrait sculptor, but became famous, especially during the decade of the 1830s, for his satirical sculptures, which he called Portraits chargés (‘loaded portraits’) or simply charges. For more information on Dantan and his work, see NT 1221044. Satirists had more opportunity for freedom of expression in Britain than in France, and Dantan’s British portraits chargés have been described as some of the most original and caustic of his caricatures (Sorel 1989, p. 32) and ‘as savage in treatment as any of his works’ (Seligman 1957, p. 75). During the 1830s his work was hardly less popular in London than it was in France, and he had some distinguished patrons, including the fourth Marquess of Londonderry (1805-1872), who is thought to have acquired the group of statuettes at Mount Stewart. They were found in the house in the early twentieth century and taken to Londonderry House in London, where they were displayed in the Library. The whole group was exhibited in 1931 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, in an exhibition on English caricature. They returned to Mount Stewart after the sale and demolition of Londonderry House in 1962. The caricature of Samuel Rogers was among the most successful of Dantan’s portraits of British subjects, in Paris as well as in London. After his return to France, the Court Journal for 12th October 1833 reported that ‘Dantan, the celebrated French caricaturist, has just returned to Paris from London, having enriched his portfolio with sketches of the Earl of S---, Count d’O---y, Ro---s the poet and various other remarkable personages, whose portraits are just now attracting crowds to the windows of Susse, in the Passage des Panoramas.’ Jeremy Warren April 2022
Provenance
Probably acquired by Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry (1805-1872); by descent at Mount Stewart and Londonderry House; given to the National Trust by Lady Mairi Bury (1921-2009) in 1976
Marks and inscriptions
Front of base, in ink:: ROGERS Back of base, incised:: Published by Dantan je/ 1 juin 1833 London
Makers and roles
Jean-Pierre Dantan (Paris 1800 - Baden-Baden 1869), sculptor
References
Londonderry House 1939: A Catalogue and Valued Inventory of the Furniture and Works of Art at Londonderry House, Park Lane, W... Prepared for the purposes of insurance, with historical notes, by H. Clifford-Smith, 1939, p. 142. Viro 1863: [Félix Andry} Charges et bustes de Dantan jeune. Esquisse biographique, dédiée à Méry, par le docteur Prosper Viro, Paris 1863, p. 83. Burlington Fine Arts Club: ‘Catalogue of a Collection of English Caricature, Winter 1931/1932’, London 1931, no. 205. Montgomery Hyde 1937 H. Montgomery Hyde, Londonderry House and its Pictures, London 1937, p. 18, Pl. IV. Hale 1940 : Richard Walden Hale, Dantan, jeune 1800-1869, and his satirical and other sculpture, especially his “portraits chargés’, Needham, Mass. 1940., p. 12. Seligman 1957: Janet Seligman. Figures of fun: the caricature-statuettes of Jean-Pierre Dantan, London 1957., pp. 77-78. 86 and 142. Sorel 1986: Philippe Sorel, ‘Les Dantan du Musée Carnavalet. Portraits-charges sculptés de l’époque romantique’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts,, 107 (1986), pp. 1-38 and 87-102, p. 93, no. 250.