John William Spencer Egerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow
Elisabet Ney (Münster 1833 - Austin, Texas 1907)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1864 (signed and dated)
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
496 x 151 x 144 mm
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 435354
Summary
Bronze, John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1842-1867), Elizabet Ney (1833-1907), 1864, signed and dated ‘Elizabet Ney. fec.’, ‘1864’. A bronze full-length figure of the 2nd Earl Brownlow, bearded, with long hair, wearing a suit. Cust stands in a pensive pose with his left foot resting on a tree stump and his right hand resting on his chin in a gesture of deep thought.
Full description
The sculptor Elisabet Ney met John, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1844-67), and his mother Lady Marian Alford (1817-88) in Madeira during the winter of 1863-64. Brownlow was being treated there for tuberculosis by Ney’s husband, Dr Edmund Montgomery (1835-1911), the 2nd Earl's physician until he finally succumbed to the disease at Montomery's later facility in Menton, France. Ney figures Lord Brownlow in a pensive pose; long-limbed and gaunt as a result of years of ill-health. Lady Marian Alford's extensive patronage of the arts was well known, particularly of the American female sculptor Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908) and her teacher John Gibson (1790-1866). As Hosmer's competitor, Ney naturally promoted her work to Lady Marian, although it is clear from correspondence that the patron found Hosmer's ideal sculpture superior to the portraiture Ney produced. Alford asked of Ney: 'Why do you do portraits? Even I, a mere amateur, can model perfect likenesses. [...] Dear Harriet is of course too good an artist to do portraits. She has commissions for ideals which will keep her busy for years' (quoted in Rommé 2008, pp.143-4). Perhaps it was for this reason that Lady Marian's patronage extended to this bronze statuette of her son, a small wax relief panel of Minerva (NT 435438) and a miniature plaster bust portrait of herself (Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin, Texas). For remuneration Ney was given a piece of Lady Marian's celebrated embroidery, but no money appears to have been exchanged. There are three known casts of the figure of Lord Brownlow, all probably cast from a Madeira model at Ney's studio in Berlin. Along with the present cast there is one at the Elisabet Ney Museum (dated 1864) and one now lost (believed to have been on the London art market in 1969; see Johann 2015, p.313, no.50.1.3). The cast now at the Ney Museum is presumed to be the one shown at the 1864 Berlin Academy and the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris (Johann 2015, p.313, no.50.1.2).Elisabet Ney was the first female sculpture student at the Munich Academy of Art. Graduating in 1854, she studied under Christian Daniel Rauch in Berlin and opened her own studio in Berlin in 1857. Ney won a host of important commissions, starting with the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. She went on to produce busts of Richard Wagner, Otto von Bismarck, George V of Hanover as well as Ludwig II of Bavaria. In 1871 Ney and her husband immigrated to the state of Georgia because of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and Montomery’s own diagnosis of tuberculosis. The couple relocated to Austin, Texas, where Ney set up a studio and Montomery engaged in medical research. Ney’s sculptures of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin, founders of the state of Texas, are today displayed in Austin’s State Capitol.Alice Rylance-WatsonSeptember 2018
Provenance
Acquired 1864 by John William Spencer Egerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow (1842-1867);purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1994)
Marks and inscriptions
Base, proper left, next to tree stump: Elizabet Ney. fec Edge of base, proper left: 1864
Makers and roles
Elisabet Ney (Münster 1833 - Austin, Texas 1907), sculptor
References
Johann 2015: Die Bildhauerin Elisabet Ney, Leben, Werk und Wirken, Berlin 2015, pp.311-13, nos. 50, 50.1.1, 50.1.2, 50.1.3 Rommé 2008, Barbara Rommé, Herrin Ihrer Kunst, Elisabet Ney, Bildhauerin in Europa und Amerika, exh.cat, venue: Stadtmuseum Munster 2008, pp.142-47