Culture Minister defers export of a bust of Charles Townley by Joseph Nollekens

072/2008
7 July 2008

Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge, has placed a temporary export bar on an imposing marble bust of an eighteenth century art collector. This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the bust of Charles Townley in the United Kingdom. 

The Minister’s ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the sculpture is of outstanding aesthetic importance and of outstanding significance for the study of Joseph Nollekens and Charles Townley. The Committee awarded a starred rating to the bust, meaning that every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country.

Joseph Nollekens, one of the foremost portrait sculptors of his age, met Charles Townley  in Rome during the latter’s first visit to the Eternal City. When both men had returned to London Nollekens often visited Townley at his London home and in 1783 sold him a collection of ancient Italian terracottas. These were acquired by the British Museum after Townley’s death in 1805, along with the rest of Townley’s great collection of Graeco-Roman sculpture. This acquisition transformed the British Museum’s collection.

This exceptional sculpture of Townley is the finest likeness of one of the most important collectors of this time. It was made posthumously with the aid of a death mask and the lifelike features and suitably serious expression movingly communicate a commemorative solemnity. Nollekens and Townley were born in the same year and knew each other well in life, and this bust epitomises their mutual respect.

Lord Inglewood, Chairman of the Reviewing Committee, said: “This portrait bust of an important British art collector, by a renowned British sculptor, demonstrates a fascinating fusion of realism and the classical ideal. It will prove valuable for the study of  both men, who were pivotal in the art world in the 18th century.”

The decision on the export licence application for this portrait bust will be deferred for a period ending on 3 September inclusive. This period may be extended until 3 December inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the sculpture at the recommended price of £308,750 (excluding VAT) is expressed.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the bust should contact the owner’s agent through:
 
The Secretary
Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Wellcome Wolfson Building
165 Queen’s Gate
South Kensington
London SW7 5HD

Notes to editors

  1. Media enquiries on the operation of, and casework arising from, the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) should  be directed to Tim Carter Senior Media Advisor on 07752 193 330 or tim.carter@mla.gov.uk
  2. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.
  3. Pictures of this item are available. Please email john.harrison@mla.gov.uk (MLA no longer subscribes to the PixMedia website service. )
  4. This is an outstanding marble portrait (ht. 45.6 cm.) of the collector Charles Townley, signed and dated 1807. It is inscribed on the front ‘CHARLES TOWNLEY.’ above a Greek inscription, which reads in translation, ‘By knowing ancient things you will have a clear understanding of the new’; it is signed twice, on the back and on the right side, ‘Nollekens Ft. 1807’. Probably commissioned by Charles Townley’s uncle, John Towneley (1731-1813), it was owned by descent until it was sold by Lord O’Hagan at Christie’s in 2007. It was on loan to the Towneley Hall Art Gallery, Burnley, Lancashire from 1926 to 2007.
  5. In this posthumous portrait, serious and at the same time animated, Townley is shown with a fleshy muscular face, eyes with incised pupils, and with two warts on the left cheek, and two more on the right. Locks of hair fall over the ears. This powerful naturalism is combined with classicising features: the bare chest, lack of a wig, and the herm form inscribed with a Greek inscription, whose sentiments are fitting for the subject’s own life and aspirations. The realistic facial features were achieved by means of a death mask; Nollekens was recorded as working on the bust shortly after Townley’s death. Joseph Farington noted in his diary for 6 February 1805, ‘Nollekens I called on. He was modelling a Bust of the late Mr Townley from a cast taken after his death. The bust very like.’
  6. Charles Townley, from a landed Catholic family, was a keen collector of antiquities, which now constitute the famous Townley Collection at the British Museum. In an age of avid British collectors of classical works of art, Townley was prominent as an individual responsible for one of the great collections of Graeco-Roman sculpture. He was educated mainly in France, and took over the family estate, Towneley Hall, near Burnley, Lancashire, in 1758, his father having died when he was a child. He undertook the Grand Tour three times, in 1767-8, 1771-4 and 1777. In Rome he purchased antiquities from Thomas Jenkins (c. 1722-1798), Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798) and Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), and he continued to buy antique sculpture in London from dealers and important sales.
  7. Joseph Nollekens was born in London, the son of an immigrant Antwerp painter, he was apprenticed to Peter Scheemakers (1691-1781), and studied drawing under the Danish sculptor Michael Henry Spang (active 1756- d. 1762). He additionally drew and modelled after the plaster casts in the Duke of Richmond’s Gallery in Whitehall. He is renowned as a great artist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and this bust is recognised as one of his greatest achievements. He learned to handle marble during his eight years in Rome, and just as importantly had studied and understood ancient Roman sculpture, and was able to incorporate and assimilate classical features into his own work.

Press Enquiries: 020 7211 6052/6277
Out of hours telephone pager no: 07699 751153
Public Enquiries: 020 7211 6200

Back to main

Back to top