{"product_id":"bronze-bust-of-the-duke-of-wellington-by-george-gammon-adams","title":"Bronze Bust of the Duke of Wellington by George Gammon Adams","description":"George Gammon Adams\u003cbr\u003e 1821–1898 | British \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003eArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Signed and dated \"G.G. Adams Sc \/ London. 1852.\" on the reverse\u003cbr\u003e Bronze \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e This life-size bronze bust immortalizes Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who was the field marshal who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Queen Victoria famously called him \"the greatest man this country ever produced.\" Upon the Duke's death in 1852, his favored sculptor George Gammon Adams was selected to take his death mask, and the portrait Adams modeled from it received the endorsement of the sitter's own family. Wellington's son, the 2nd Duke, pronounced it \"by far the best that has appeared\" and affirmed that it would thereafter stand as the authentic likeness of his father. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Cast from Adams' original marble, this bronze is one of the very few life-size examples. One remains with the Wellington family, while the other resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London—the very work the museum selected when the sculptor's daughter offered it a choice among her father's portraits. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Adams presents the Duke in the manner of a Roman senator, the bare chest and draped mantle across the left shoulder invoking the classical tradition of civic virtue and command. The modeling of the face proceeds directly from the death mask, preserving the aquiline nose, the deep-set eyes and the drawn cheeks of a man in his eighty-third year, yet the sculptor lifts the head and firms the jaw to restore the authority the nation recognized in him. Fine chasing distinguishes the crisp waves of hair and the folds of drapery from the smooth planes of the brow and cheek, while a warm brown patina unifies the whole. Adams held the work in sufficient regard to exhibit it at the Royal Academy in 1854 and again in 1859. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e George Gammon Adams (1821-1898) trained at the Royal Academy Schools and studied in Rome under John Gibson before establishing himself among the leading portrait sculptors of Victorian Britain. His commission to record Wellington's features after death represents the summit of his career and secured his reputation, though he also produced the statue of General Napier in Trafalgar Square and a substantial body of portrait medals. Adams' Wellington remains the definitive sculpted likeness of the Duke, reproduced and copied throughout the nineteenth century. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 32 1\/2\" high x 16 1\/2\" wide x 13\" deep (82.55 x 41.91 x 33.02 cm) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Provenance:\u003cbr\u003e Private Collection, London\u003cbr\u003e M.S. Rau, New Orleans","brand":"M.S. Rau","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45400590516359,"sku":"32-2866","price":74500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0083\/2471\/0466\/files\/32-2866_1.png?v=1785972057","url":"https:\/\/rauantiques.com\/products\/bronze-bust-of-the-duke-of-wellington-by-george-gammon-adams","provider":"M.S. Rau","version":"1.0","type":"link"}