Louis François Roubiliac, 1702–1762, French, active in Britain (from 1730)
Title:
Alexander Pope
Date:
1741
Materials & Techniques:
Marble
Dimensions:
Overall: 24 3/4 x 17 x 9 inches (62.9 x 43.2 x 22.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Paul Mellon in memory of the British art historian Basil Taylor (1922–1975)
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1993.27
Gallery Label:
Alexander Pope (1688–1744), a satirist, poet, and man of letters, was one of the most celebrated literary figures of his time. The French-born sculptor Louis François Roubiliac modeled a terracotta bust of Pope in around 1738, from which he made several marble versions over the next few years. This version, signed and dated 1741, was made for Henry St. John, first Viscount Bolingbroke, and is inscribed “ad vivum” (from life) to indicate that the original model was based on direct observation of Pope himself. At some point after Pope died, Bolingbroke had it additionally inscribed with the dates of the poet’s birth and death. In the nineteenth century it was owned by Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, whose friend John Wilson Crocker called it “the finest bit of marble I ever saw.” Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
