John Michael Rysbrack, 1694–1770, Flemish, active in Britain (from 1720)
Title:
William III
Date:
ca. 1736
Materials & Techniques:
Marble
Dimensions:
Overall: 25 1/2 x 18 x 11 3/4 inches (64.8 x 45.7 x 29.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.27
Classification:
Sculptures
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
lion | portrait | wreaths (costume accessories) | Roman | man | king (person)
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : William III (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-04-08 - 2011-07-31)Crown Pictorial - Art and the British Monarchy (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-12-05 - 1991-02-17)
Publications:
Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy : Exhibition Labels, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, p. 20, no. 47, N8219 K5 C761 1990 (YCBA)Linda Colley, Crown Pictorial : Art and the British Monarchy, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1990, p. 30, no. 47, no. 47, N8219 K5 C76 1990 (YCBA)Katharine Eustace, Michael Rysbrack, sculptor, 1694-1770, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol (Avon), 1982, pp. 30-32, fig. 12, NJ18 R973 E87 (YCBA)The British Augustan Oligarchy in Portraiture, Michael Rysbrack and his Bust of the Earl of Orkney , British Art Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, 2010/11, pp. 50, 51, Pl. 13, N6761 B74 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Angus Trumble, The Marble Bust, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2004, no. 13, V 1304 (YCBA)Giles Waterfield, The Illusion of Life : Michael Rysbrack (1649-1770), Country Life, vol. 171, London, March 18, 1982, pp. 700-701, S3 C9 (YCBA)Ellis Waterhouse, Sculpture from the Paul Mellon Collection at the British Art Center at Yale, Burlington Magazine, vol. 119, May 1977, p. 351, fig. 52, N1 +B87 Oversize (YCBA)William III, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2011, pp. 8, 11, 22, V2340
Gallery Label:
This posthumous bust of William III was made by John Michael Rysbrack, an émigré Flemish artist who became England’s leading sculptor in the first half of the eighteenth century. The Dutch-born William assumed the English throne in 1688 after landing in England with a small army. He had been invited to intervene in British affairs by a group of Whig grandees who were opposed to the policies of the Catholic King James II, which they feared would lead to the end of English Protestantism. William’s foreign policy led to two long wars against France from which Britain emerged as a major global power. This celebratory bust of William as an ancient Roman was made more than thirty years after his death, indicative of his lasting legacy as an icon of British Protestantism. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016