The Falconer
John Edward Carew (Tramore, County Waterford c.1782 – London 1868)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1827 - 1828 - 1829
Materials
Marble
Measurements
2260 mm (Height)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486406
Summary
Marble sculpture, 'The Falconer' by John Edward Carew (Tramore, County Waterford c.1782 – London 1868), circa 1827/28-29. A marble statue of a falconer, naked except for a loin cloth and with a falcon on raised outstretched wrist, the other hand holding a dead goose. According to Carew's own testimony, 'The Falconer' was certainly completed before his move from London to Brighton in 1831, and was installed at Petworth in 1829. The 6th Duke of Devonshire, who saw it in Carew's studio in 1829, thought it 'rather fine'. Unlike Carew's other ideal statues, it apparently has no literary or mythological derivation. The 3rd Earl's executors argued that the statue was carved 'on speculation' by Carew in the hope that it would be bought by the Duke of St Albans 'as the Grand Falconer of England'. When this did not materialise, the statue was bought by the 3rd Earl, although Carew maintained it had been ordered by him in the first place and in 1835, it stood at the west end of the central corridor.
Provenance
Acquired by the 3rd Earl of Egremont, thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Marks and inscriptions
102 (painted on front of base)
Makers and roles
John Edward Carew (Tramore, County Waterford c.1782 – London 1868), sculptor