Modelled and fired. Coated with a finishing layer. The back is hollow, with the exception of a solid central support.

The nose and some parts of the mantle, as well as the left shoulder, have been supplemented in plaster. The bust is covered with a later coat of red paint.

Commissioned by Queen Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), c. 1735/37 or King George II of Great Britain and Ireland (1683-1760), 1738; ? from the artist to Anne of Hanover (1709-1759), Stadhouderlijk Hof, Leeuwarden, c. 1739;¹¹Mentioned in the 1764 inventory of the Stadhouderlijk Hof, see S.W.A. Drossaers and T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer (eds.), Inventarissen van de inboedels in de verblijven van de Oranjes en daarmee gelijk te stellen stukken 1567-1795, vol. 3, The Hague 1976, p. 39, no. 177. The portrait is thought to have left Rysbrack’s atelier in or shortly after 1739, because in that year he felt the need to make a copy of it which he kept with him until his death, together with the original terracotta bust of George II from 1738, see Royal Collection, inv. nos. RCIN 1411 (Queen Caroline) and 1412 (King George II). …; from the Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, The Hague, transferred to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1882;²²Note RMA, inv. no. B-60. transferred to the museum, March 1887

Object number: BK-NM-5760

John Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770) spent his apprenticeship in his native city of Antwerp, with the celebrated sculptor Michiel van der Voort (1667-1737).³³Biographical data taken from I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M.G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, New Haven/London 2009, pp. 1076-91. In 1720 he left for good, going to England, where his exceptional talent was recognized almost immediately. There, he succeeded in securing many important assignments for busts, monuments, mantelpieces and statues. The lifelikeness of his portrait busts was widely admired and he soon became the most sought-after portraitist of his day. Thanks to surviving letters to his patrons and to notebooks of the chronicler of artists, George Vertue (1684-1756), who wrote extensively about Rysbrack, a great many details are known about his work and life.

Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), the consort of the English King George II, was a great patroness of the arts and an avid book-collector.⁴⁴For Caroline, see J. Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth Century Court, New Haven/London 2014. Around 1735 she decided to build a new library at St James’ Palace for her vast book collection to be designed by the well-known British architect William Kent. She commissioned her favourite sculptor, John Michael Rysbrack, to make ‘Bustos in Marble of all the Kings of England from William the Conqueror’,⁵⁵The Old Whig, or The Consistent Protestant 16, 26 June 1735. This article also reports that the busts were intended for the Queen’s ‘New Building in the Gardens at Richmond’. That relates to Merlin’s Cave, also designed by William Kent, the building of which commenced in 1735. However, the suggestion that the series was intended for the Cave must have been a mistake, since there was not nearly enough space to accommodate such a vast group, see J. Marschner, ‘Michael Rysbrack’s Sculpture Series for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace’, in D. Dethloff et al. (eds.), Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman, London 2015, pp. 27-35, esp. pp. 27-28. which, according to Kent’s design drawing would stand in recesses above the bookcases.⁶⁶J. Marschner, ‘Michael Rysbrack’s Sculpture Series for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace’, in D. Dethloff et al. (eds.), Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman, London 2015, pp. 27-35, esp. figs. 125 and 126. If this dynastic series had been completed in full, it would have been the most extensive sculpture commission from the British royal family of the first half of the eighteenth century.⁷⁷J. Marschner, ‘Michael Rysbrack’s Sculpture Series for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace’, in D. Dethloff et al. (eds.), Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman, London 2015, pp. 27-35, esp. p. 27. However, Caroline’s unexpected death thwarted its completion. She had become ill when visiting her as yet not fully equipped library and died shortly after on 20 November 1737.⁸⁸J. Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth Century Court, New Haven/London, p. 169. In January 1738 Rysbrack was paid for his work and he complied with the request to send ‘the modellos of the faces you [Rysbrack] made for working after’ to King George II, who had them erected belatedly in Caroline’s library, as a tribute to his deceased wife.⁹⁹J. Marschner, ‘Michael Rysbrack’s Sculpture Series for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace’, in D. Dethloff et al. (eds.), Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman, London 2015, pp. 27-35, esp. p. 27. That year Rysbrack sculpted another set of terracotta busts of the king and his late wife in accordance with the formula of the earlier portraits in the series. They were probably part of Caroline’s original commission. In his notebook for that year George Vertue recorded: ‘the KING … sat to [Rysbrack] at Kensington twice. to have his picture modelled in Clay. the likeness much approvd on – and with good Air. – also a Moddel of the Queen vastly like. Tho’ not done from the life.’¹⁰¹⁰‘Note Books, George Vertue, III’, The Twenty-Second Volume of the Walpole Society 22 (1933-34), p. 84. The vitality of Caroline’s posthumous portrait, which today is housed in the Rijksmuseum, is indeed striking. Apart from on his own recollection – Rysbrack had met the queen during her life – he probably based the work on existing portraits, such as the profile portrait dating from around 1735 by the artist Joseph Highmore. This painting depicts the queen in exactly the same robes of state, with strings of pearls threaded through her hair and a high jewelled diadem.¹¹¹¹London, Royal Collection, inv. no. RCIN 306035.

In 1739 Vertue noted that ‘two Marble Bustos the one of his present Majesty from a Model done from the life Mr Rysbrack – and another busto of her late Majesty Q. Caroline both were erected in the new library in St. James Green Park’.¹²¹²See ‘Note Books’, George Vertue, III’, The Twenty-Second Volume of the Walpole Society 22 (1933-34), p. 95. These two marble busts after the terracotta models of 1738, are still kept in the Royal Collection.¹³¹³London, Royal Collection, inv. nos. RCIN 31322 (King George II) and RCIN 31317 (Queen Caroline). They are signed but not dated. A drawing made around 1815 and a watercolour of 1819 (fig. a) give an impression of the way the busts were arranged in the library.¹⁴¹⁴J. Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth Century Court, New Haven/London 2014, figs. 124 and 177. The marble portrait busts of the royal couple stood facing each other in recesses above the mantelpieces at either end of the large, rectangular room. The terracotta busts of their royal predecessors were not placed in recesses as planned by Kent, but on high brackets above the bookcases at the side walls. Unfortunately, the drawing and the watercolour do not depict the entire space, so we cannot tell how many busts made up the series (at that time). In 1825 the Queen’s Library was pulled down and the busts were moved to the Orangery of Windsor Castle.

Only three portrait busts remain of the former sovereigns, i.e. Queen Elizabeth I, Edward the Black Prince and King Edward VI.¹⁵¹⁵London, Royal Collection, inv. nos. RCIN 45101, 37067 and 53346, respectively. There were at least eleven, but in 1906 eight of the terracottas were destroyed when a shelf on which they were being kept at that time collapsed. Thanks to a series of photos taken of the busts round 1874, they are known to have featured King Edward III and his wife Queen Philippa of Hainault, King Henry V and his wife Catherine of Valois, King Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York, King Alfred, and Henry, Prince of Wales.¹⁶¹⁶London, Royal Collection, inv. nos. RCIN 2412440, 24124441, 2412445, 2412450, 2412452, 2412446, 2412449 and 2412451, respectively. The bust of Elizabeth of York survived and is kept – badly damaged – in the Royal Collection store, inv. no. RCIN31667. Bearing in mind what was an illogical (because uneven) number considering the symmetrical arrangement of the space, it is perhaps worth mentioning that, according to Vertue, Rysbrack had embarked on a portrait of King James I in 1734-35. When visiting Rysbrack’s workshop, the queen had said: ‘It reminds me of an executioner. I won’t have it done’.¹⁷¹⁷ ‘Il me semble a une boureau. I won’t have it done’. ‘Note Books, George Vertue, III’, The Twenty-Second Volume of the Walpole Society 22 (1933-34), p. 75. However, it is not impossible that Rysbrack did realize the bust of James I, but in an adapted form, and that it was lost before the photos were taken. It is also possible that by that time even more busts had come to grief, or that, when Caroline died, Rysbrack had not yet got around to making certain busts and that the assignment for them was then cancelled.¹⁸¹⁸J. Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth Century Court, New Haven/London 2014, p. 87.

It is very likely that the Amsterdam terracotta had belonged to Caroline’s eldest daughter, Anna van Hannover (1709-1759), who married the Dutch stadholder Willem IV in 1734. In an inventory dating from 1764 of the contents of the Stadhouderlijk Hof in Leeuwarden where she was living, mention is made of ‘A modelled stone bust of the queen of England, consort of George II’.¹⁹¹⁹Een geboetseert steenen borstbeeld van de koninginne van Engeland, gemalin van George de 2de. J. de Haan, ‘The Leeuwarden Lacquer Room. A Royal Puzzle’, Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57 (2009), pp. 149-69, p. 159. Anne’s papers in the Royal Archives in The Hague show that Caroline’s death was deeply felt, and perhaps she acquired the bust directly from the artist as a memento.²⁰²⁰With thanks to Joanna Marschner, written communication 8 December 2017. Anne would certainly have been aware of Rysbrack’s work, having accompanied her mother on various visits to meet artists and to view art works. The bust was displayed in an usual setting in the Stadhouderlijk Hof: a small cabinet entirely decorated with panels of Chinese lacquer.²¹²¹F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, p. 76; S.W.A. Drossaers and T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer (eds.), Inventarissen van de inboedels in de verblijven van de Oranjes en daarmee gelijk te stellen stukken 1567-1795, vol. 3, The Hague 1976, p. 39, no. 177. This oriental panelling was transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1881 (BK-16709). A year later, the Queen Caroline’s portrait was transferred to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst in The Hague, and in 1887 to the Rijksmuseum, where it was regarded as a portrait of Anna van Hannover.²²²²Borstbeeld eener vorstin, vermoedelijk voorstellende Anna van Brunswijk-Lüneburg, gemalin van Willem IV Prins van Oranje (Bust of a monarch, presumably depicting Anna van Brunswijk- Lüneburg, consort of Willem IV, Prince of Orange). Note RMA. Apparently the true identity of the subject had been forgotten by then.

The 1738 terracotta model of the bust of George II and a second version Rysbrack made in 1739 as a copy after the portrait of Caroline remained in the artist’s possession until his death in 1760. In 1767 they featured in the sale of his estate,²³²³Sale collection John Michael Rysbrack, London (Langford & Son), 14 February 1767, nos. 57-58. No. 57 is catalogued as ‘George I, after the life in 1738’, but, in view of the date and the combination with no. 58 (‘Queen Caroline’), must relate to George II. where they most probably were purchased by Sir Edward Littleton, a former patron of Rysbrack’s and a great admirer of his work.²⁴²⁴M.I. Webb, Michael Rysbrack Sculptor, London 1954, p. 555; K. Eustace, Michael Rysbrack: Sculptor 1694-1770, Bristol 1982, p. 192. In the end, they were acquired in 1932 by Queen Mary from Lord Hatherton, a descendant of Littleton’s, thus ending up in the Royal Collection.²⁵²⁵London, Royal Collection, inv. nos. RCIN 1411 (Queen Caroline) and RCIN 1412 (King George II). Clearly the date of the Rijksmuseum version (1738) was not widely known and the 1739 terracotta portrait of Caroline in the Royal Collection has so far often been entered, erroneously, as the first version.²⁶²⁶Cf. A. Esdaile, The Art of John Michael Rysbrack in Terrracotta, sale exh. London (Spink & Son Ltd.) 1932, p. 41; J. Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth Century Court, New Haven/London 2014, p. 85. Moreoever, the date of the 1739 version in the Royal Collection has repeatedly been noted, incorrectly, as 1738, see for example M.I. Webb, Michael Rysbrack Sculptor, London 1954, p. 555; K. Eustace, Michael Rysbrack: Sculptor 1694-1770, Bristol 1982, p. 213; K. Eustace, Michael Rysbrack: Sculptor 1694-1770, Bristol 1982, p. 192; J. Marschner (ed.), Enlightened Princesses, Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte and the Shaping of the Modern World, exh. cat. New Haven (Yale Center for British Art)/London (Kensington Palace) 2017, p. 249. With thanks to Joanna Marschner for checking the dates, written communication, 8 December 2017.

The fact that Rysbrack was allowed to keep these models is a strong indication that George II gave him permission to make replicas of the busts.²⁷²⁷M.I. Webb, Michael Rysbrack Sculptor, London 1954, p. 156. At all events, in The Wallace Collection (London) has a second example in marble of Caroline’s bust (h. 68.6 cm)²⁸²⁸This portrait entered the Hertford-Wallace collection via Maria Fagnani, the wife of the third Marquess of Hertford. As a young girl she was adopted by George Augustus Selwyn, M.P. (1719-1791), whose mother, Mary Farrington, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Caroline. Kindly communicated by Gordon Balderston, 19 September 2002. and in 2017 a second marble version of George II’s bust (h. 63 cm) was sold.²⁹²⁹Sale London (Sotheby’s), 24 October 2017, no. 193. Both busts are signed, but undated, and were probably pendants. Around 1758-60 Rysbrack made a variant of the bust of George II, in which the king’s features were adjusted to his, by then, highly advanced age.³⁰³⁰London, Royal Collection, inv. no. RCIN 31623; London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. A10:1932 (monogrammed and dated 1760, catalogued as workshop of Rysbrack); Oxford, Christ Church Library, see I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M.G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, New Haven/London 2009, p. 1088, no. 246. A terracotta, signed by Rysbrack and dated 1758 in the Durham University College collection could be the model of these busts.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

M. Crake, Eighteenth Century Portrait Busts, exh. cat. London (Kenwood, The Iveagh Bequest Kenwood) 1959, p. 28; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 410, with earlier literature; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 35; M. Baker, ‘The Making of Portrait Busts in the Mid-Righteenth Century: Roubiliac, Scheemakers and Trinity College, Dublin’, The Burlington Magazine 137 (1995), pp. 821-31, esp. p. 825; D. Shawe-Taylor (ed.), The First Georgians: Art & Monarchy 1714-1760, exh. cat. London (Buckingham Palace) 2004, p. 35; J. de Haan, ‘The Leeuwarden Lacquer Room. A Royal Puzzle’, Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57 (2009), pp. 149-69, esp. p. 159; I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M.G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, New Haven/London 2009, p. 1087; J. Marschner, ‘Michael Rysbrack’s Sculpture Series for Queen Caroline’s Library at St James’s Palace’, in D. Dethloff et al. (eds.), Burning Bright: Essays in Honour of David Bindman, London 2015, pp. 27-35, esp. note 9 (the Rijksmuseum terracotta is erroneously mentioned as part of the collection of the ‘Koninklijk Huisarchief, The Hague’)

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'John Michael Rysbrack, Bust of Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of England (1683-1737), London, 1738', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200116114