Minerva bringing peace to Cupid and Psyche
Elisabet Ney (Münster 1833 - Austin, Texas 1907)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1864
Materials
Wax
Measurements
95 x 121 mm (3 3/4 x 4 3/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 435438
Summary
Wax, relief panel in gilt frame, Minerva bringing peace to Cupid and possibly Psyche, Elisabet Ney (1833-1907), c.1864, signed top right 'ELIS NEY'. A reddish-brown wax relief with Minerva, goddess of wisdom, reconciling Cupid (left) and possibly Psyche (right). Psyche was previously catalogued as Venus, Cupid's mother.
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. 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 a bronze statuette of her son, this wax relief panel and a miniature plaster portrait bust 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. Elisabet Nye 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 there in 1857. Nye 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-Watson December 2018
Provenance
Acquired by Lady Marian Alford (1817-88). 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)
Makers and roles
Elisabet Ney (Münster 1833 - Austin, Texas 1907), sculptor
References
Rommé 2008, Barbara Rommé, Herrin Ihrer Kunst, Elisabet Ney, Bildhauerin in Europa und Amerika, exh.cat, venue: Stadtmuseum Munster 2008 Johann 2015: Die Bildhauerin Elisabet Ney, Leben, Werk und Wirken, Berlin 2015