Lion
John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1755 - circa 1780
Materials
Lead on stone pedestal
Measurements
900 x 700 mm; 1750 mm (Length)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515157
Summary
Lead, lion, John Cheere (1709-87), c. 1755-80. A recumbent lion cast in lead produced by John Cheere, London. In a pair with a lioness, NT 515158. Modelled after a stone lion and lioness of 1738 in the gardens of Chiswick House, villa of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753). Mounted on a stone plinth; the surface of the lion covered in a large amount of historic graffiti.
Full description
The lead lion and lioness cast by John Cheere are after a stone pair mounted in 1738 in the exedra of Chiswick House, villa of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753). Burlington was an Anglo-Irish nobleman, architect and patron of the arts, credited with reviving Palladianism in Britain. An arbiter of taste, he was referred to by Horace Walpole as the ‘Apollo of the Arts’. The garden at Chiswick House, chiefly designed by Burlington’s associate William Kent, is considered one of the earliest true English landscape gardens and was one of the most influential of its type in the Georgian era. The Chiswick lions are visible in John Donowell’s engraved view of the exedra published 1753 (see Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 701784.e). Daniel Defoe, and later Daniel Lysons, erroneously attributed them to Peter Scheemakers (1691-1781), sculptor of the Caledonian Boar and Wolf which were mounted opposite the lions and which are now at Chatsworth (Barnard and Clark 1995, p. 136). Discrepancies in style and treatment as well as the relative quality of the Portland stone show that Scheemakers cannot have been their maker (Davis 1991, p. 92). In 1749 John Cheere, Britain’s leading manufacturer of statuary in lead, cast for Burlington a lead version of stone sphinxes designed by Burlington himself around 1729-32. Cheere supplied a cast the very same sphinx for Castle Hill, the Devonshire seat of Lord Clinton designed by Burlington and Roger Morris, as well as casts of the Chiswick lion and lioness. An undated letter from Cheere to Lord Clinton refers to one of these commissions – though he does not clarify which – and recounts that fresh measurements of a Chiswick sculpture measuring ‘ten foot’ had to be taken in preparation for the commission (Fulton 2003, p. 29). It is not known when Lord Burlington authorised moulds of the lion and lioness, but casts of them appear to have been part of Cheere’s largest ever commission undertaken in 1755 for Prince Pedro of Portugal (see Neto and Grilo 2006 for a full account). Records in the archives at Lisbon reveal that two pairs of lions and lionesses were shipped to Queluz Palace as part of a massive consignment of nine sculptural groups, 57 figures and 72 lead vases. None of the Queluz animal groups by Cheere has survived. Surviving casts of the Chiswick lions, in addition to those at Anglesey Abbey and Castle Hill, were supplied by Cheere to West Wycombe (NT 807675.1 and 807675.2; c. 1750-81 for Sir Francis Dashwood, but possibly c. 1770 when John and Henry Cheere were paid for work at West Wycombe); to Heaton Hall, Manchester (Sir Thomas Egerton’s accounts show payment to Cheere in 1774 for £56.10.0, which no doubt refers to the lions), and, finally, to Quenby Hall, Leicestershire seat of the Ashby family (before 1790, when an engraving showing the lions in situ was published). The lion and lioness were apparently ‘found’ for Anglesey Abbey by Lord Fairhaven's friend, the leading architect and collector Professor Sir Albert Richardson (1880-1964; Roper 1964, p. 54). An entry in the diaries of Anglesey's Head Gardener reveals that the lions came from 'Whites of Bedford', a dealer local to the Professor who lived at Ampthill, on 28 and 30 January 1952. Richardson, elected President of the Royal Academy in 1954, was responsible for the picture gallery at Anglesey Abbey (1955-6) and for alterations to a Lord Fairhaven’s mother’s house at Englefield Green (Houfe 1980, p. 147). According to Simon Houfe, he regularly advised Lord Fairhaven on acquisitions and collecting, acting as a kind of ‘marchand mercier’ and personally inspecting works ‘in dealers’ premises before they found their way to Anglesey’ (Houfe 1980, p. 148). The lions were bought for Anglesey with their surfaces entirely covered in engraved historic graffiti. A profusion of initials, names and dates, such as ‘C.E. Fox 1883’, predate Lord Fairhaven’s acquisition and suggest that the lions were once mounted in a public place or institution. Further examples of lead statuary by John Cheere at Anglesey Abbey are the Shepherd and Shepherdess (NT 515120-515121), Minerva (NT 515130), Diana and Apollo (NT 515159-515160, identical to the pair at Queluz), the Grecian sphinxes (NT 515156.1 and 515156.2), The Olympian Courtship (NT 515135, identical to the group at Queluz), and Samson slaying the Philistine (NT 515133). Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Provenance
Apparently acquired for Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) by Sir Albert Richardson (1880-1964) and brought from 'Whites of Bedford' to Anglesy Abbey on 28 and 30 January 1952 (Head Gardener, Anglesey Abbey); bequeathed to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
John Cheere (London 1709 – London 1787), caster
References
Barnard and Clark 1995: Toby Barnard and Jane Clark (eds.), Lord Burlington: Art, Architecture and Life, London and Rio Grande 1995 Davis 1991: John Davis, Antique Garden Ornament, 300 years of creativity: Artists, manufacturers & materials, Woodbridge 1991, p. 92. Fulton 2003: Moira Fulton, ‘John Cheere, the eminent statuary, his workshop and practice, 1737-1787, Sculpture Journal, X, 2003, pp. 21-39., p. 29. Neto and Grilo 2006: Maria João Neto and Fernando Grilo, 'John Cheere's lead garden statues workshop and the important commissions of Prince Pedro of Portugal in 1755-56', Sculpture Journal, vol. 15.1 (2006), pp. 5-18. Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, p. 54. Houfe 1980: Simon Houfe, Sir Albert Richardson: The Professor, Luton: White Crescent Press, 1980, pp. 147-8. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 171.