Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852)
possibly Peter Turnerelli (Belfast 1774 - London 1839)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1813
Materials
Marble
Measurements
711 mm (H)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Tatton Park, Cheshire
NT 1298521
Summary
Carrara marble, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (Dublin 1769 – Walmer Castle, Kent 1852), after Joseph Nollekens (London - 1737-1823), after 1813. A marble portrait bust of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, after the original bust by Joseph Nollekens (exh. RA 1813, 935; original untraced, see Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London, inv.no 1446-1948; for an engraving of the bust see National Portrait Gallery NPG D37610). Mounted on a turned marble socle. The present bust is very close to a copy after Nollekens by the Irish sculptor Peter Turnerelli (Belfast c. 1772 – London 1839) in the collection of the National Army Museum (NAM. 1960-07-68-1); see also Sotheby's, London, European Sculpture and Works of Art 900-1900, 10 December 2002, lot 143. Both Turnerelli and Nollekens exhibited portrait busts of the Duke of Wellington at the Royal Academy in 1813, Turnerelli's exhibited bust known in versions at Walmer Castle (RCIN 71706), the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI.8273) and elsewhere. According to the Dictionary of Irish Artists, Wellington sat for Turnerelli on two occasions, the first of these producing a bust which bore an unquestionable resemblance to Nollekens' exhibited portrait (Strickland 1913, vol. II, p. 470). A vexed Nollekens reported to his friend Joseph Farington that Turnerelli had copied his work, 'and now sold it as his own performance' (Farington vol. 12, p. 4408). The bust at the National Army Museum is one of these copies, and it is likely that this bust at Tatton Park is another.
Makers and roles
possibly Peter Turnerelli (Belfast 1774 - London 1839), sculptor after Joseph Nollekens, RA (London 1737 – London 1823), sculptor
References
Strickland 1913: W. G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 2 vols.1913 Farington 1804: Joseph Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, ed. Kenneth Garlick & Angus Macintyre, New Haven and London, 16 vols, 1978-84 Roscoe 2009: I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M. G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, New Haven and Yale 2009, pp. 1288, 1291 (errata, exh. 1813 not 1814)