The Campbell Sisters Dancing a Waltz by Lorenzo Bartolini
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RCEWA Case 9 (2014-15): The Campbell Sisters dancing a waltz by Lorenzo Bartolini Expert adviser’s statement Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to have not been reproduced on the Arts Council England website The Campbell Sisters Dancing a Waltz by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850); Florence; c. 1820. In our opinion this sculpture satisfies the first and third of the Waverley criteria, and we are therefore objecting to its export. Provenance The sculpture was probably commissioned by Lady Charlotte Campbell (1777-1861) and her brother George William Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll (1768-1839). It almost certainly entered the collection of the 6th Duke at Inverary Castle, Argyll, on the West coast of Scotland, in about 1822; thence by descent. It was exhibited on loan at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh from 1991 to 2013. Description of the Sculpture and the Commission This figure group, on an integral circular base (h. 170cm.), carved in Carrara marble, depicts two young women in flowing high-waisted décolleté dresses and sandals. They turn towards each other, stepping forward in a dance. The gnarled tree trunk between them is inscribed with the sculptor’s name and a dedication to the British artist John Flaxman (1755-1826): ‘BARTOLINI / FECE / E DEDICÒ / FLAXMAN’. The whole is set on a circular white marble plinth adorned with garlands of flowers (92 x 98 x 78 cm.). The two dancing figures depict Emma and Julia Campbell, the youngest daughters of Lady Charlotte Campbell, who was herself the youngest daughter of the 5th Duke of Argyll. Lady Charlotte’s husband, John Campbell, had died in 1809, leaving his widow with eight children. In 1816, having served as lady-in-waiting to Caroline, Princess of Wales for several years, Lady Charlotte moved to Florence, partly evidently in order to save money. There in 1818 she married the Reverend Edward John Bury, formerly tutor to her eldest son. Emma and Julia Campbell still lived with their mother, but it seems unlikely that she alone ordered the group, since she enjoyed only a small income, and the cost, according to Bartolini’s accounts, was 500 luigi, about £500. The sculptor recorded that it was commissioned by the sitters’ brother: ‘Gruppo di due Danzatrice sorelle di sig. Campbell da lui comesse, e spedite a Edimbourg.’ But the eldest son of Lady Charlotte, Walter Campbell (1798-1855), appears to be an unlikely patron. More plausibly the young women’s uncle, Lady Charlotte’s brother, the 6th Duke of Argyll, could have commissioned it. Although the sculpture was not in point of fact recorded at his seat, Inverary Castle, until more than a century later, in 1936, it seems probable that he owned it and displayed it there soon after it was produced. 1 Surprisingly, little contemporary documentation survives about the genesis or display of this important work. The earliest mention of it is by the Irish novelist and traveller Sydney, Lady Morgan (1783-1859), who wrote in 1821, ‘There is scarcely a living bust in Great Britain, on which fashion has set her mark, or notoriety stamped her signature, that may not be found in the studio and galleries of Signore Bartolini. But while … [he] is reckoned one of the first portrait-sculptors in Italy, as he is unquestionably the most fashionable, he has established his claim to a higher rank in his noble art … [T]he beautiful daughters of Lady Charlotte Campbell are historical works; and independent of the extraordinary fidelity of the likenesses (their greatest merit in the eyes of their possessors), they are eminently precious as specimens of the perfection to which modern sculpture has arrived at an epoch so near that of its revival from a state of absolute degradation.’ The identities of the sculpted figures were established by the writer Mary Berry (1763-1852). She wrote in her Journal on 7 June, 1821: ‘Dined at the Lockes with Bartolini, at whose house we had been to see … two of the young Campbells, Emma and Julia, grouped as dancers, now modelled in terra cotta. The pose of the figures is really charming, and the drapery simple and flowing, without affectation.’ If the group Mary Berry described was actually of terracotta, no version now survives in this material. The plaster model however is extant in Florence, one of many plasters from Bartolini’s studio, and it is possible Berry miswrote ‘terra cotta’ for plaster. Lorenzo Bartolini After the death of Antonio Canova in 1822, Lorenzo Bartolini was arguably the greatest living Italian sculptor, although his contemporary reputation was ambivalent, mainly for political reasons to be discussed below. Nevertheless, once Bertel Thorvaldsen had left Rome for Copenhagen in 1838, Bartolini was virtually without an artistic rival in the field of sculpture in his native land until his death in 1850. Specialising in portraiture, but also producing mythological and genre subjects in marble, Bartolini combined a pure classicist style with the naturalism which came from his training and working in France. Born near Prato, Bartolini initially trained as an alabaster carver in Volterra, and then enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. In 1797 he settled in Paris, where he continued his training as both a painter and sculptor, and became a close friend of Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). The two artists occupied a studio formerly used by Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), whose austere neo-classical style profoundly influenced the two younger artists. Bartolini gained many influential patrons in Paris, not least Napoleon, whose Head in bronze he executed in 1805. A number of other official portrait busts were produced by him at this time, and he was one of the sculptors asked to contribute a relief to the Austerlitz Column in the Place Vendôme in 1806. In the same year he left France to become Director of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, which had been newly founded by Napoleon’s sister, Eliza, Princess of Piombo and Grand Duchess of Tuscany. With the disintegration of Napoleon’s rule in 1813, Eliza was dethroned, and Bartolini, closely associated with the Napoleonic régime, fled to Livorno, his studio in Carrara having been looted. Eventually, after Napoleon’s final defeat in 1815, Bartolini returned to Florence, where he thrived as a society sculptor, though 2 his past active support for Napoleon meant that he was unpopular amongst many of his compatriots. Meanwhile his leanings towards a more naturalistic French style were seen by some to be at odds with the prevailing neo-classical language then in vogue. Mary Berry noted in 1817, he ‘makes very good likenesses in his busts, but he works to sell, and not to immortalise his name.’ Among his eminent sitters were Byron, Liszt, Rossini, and Anatole Demidoff. Bartolini was in fact an eclectic and complex artist, enamoured of the Florentine quattrocento, as well as neo-classical purity and naturalistic observation. Moreover he greatly admired the British sculptor John Flaxman (1755-1826) (as did Ingres), as can be seen from the inscribed dedication on the plinth of the present group. Flaxman’s drawings and engravings, notably his illustrations to Homer, were praised above all by his contemporaries. As this implies, the British artist was most often emulated by his Continental peers because of his command of draughtsmanship and the relief form. Perhaps here, in a figure group which was full of movement and emphatically three- dimensional, Bartolini felt nonetheless indebted to his older British contemporary because of the complex and controlled design of the whole. Possibly too Flaxman’s British nationality was seen to be in harmony with that of the sitters. Bartolini had a life-long interest in music, and apparently sang to the accompaniment of Ingres playing the violin. The French painter was indeed in Florence at the time the present group was carved, since Bartolini had invited him to come to Tuscany from Paris. The sculpture is a lively visual evocation of music and dance, as well as a charming portrait of two sisters. The nearest parallel is conceivably Gottfried Schadow’s marble group of the Princesses Luise and Friederike of Prussia of 1796-7, now in the National-Galerie, Berlin. That work is likewise a full-length portrait in marble of two young sisters in an affectionate embrace, and may have been known to Bartolini. The present group could also be seen as a counterpoint to Canova’s celebrated Three Graces, the second version of which had been completed in 1815 (Victoria and Albert Museum/National Galleries of Scotland). But in reality Bartolini’s sculpture is unique, not only in comparison to the output of his predecessors and contemporaries, but even within his own oeuvre. His full-length portrait of Maria Naryuskina, Countess Gouria, of 1821 (Municipal Museum, Prato) and his earlier marble of Eliza Bonaparte and her young daughter Napoleona of 1812 (National Museum, Versailles) are broadly comparable, but lack the verve, vivacity and energy of the Campbell sisters dancing. The sculpture and the first of the Waverley criteria: Is the object so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune? Bartolini, unlike Thorvaldsen, had comparatively few British sitters. This remarkable group has remained within the Campbell family, almost certainly displayed for nearly two centuries at their family seat, ever since it was first commissioned. It is the only example of a major commission of a figure group from a British patron given to the artist, who was to become one of the leading European sculptors of his day. The sculpture and the third of the Waverley criteria: Is the object of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history? 3 Because Bartolini devoted much of his career to the production of portrait busts, this superlative full-length group stands out as an exceptional work: it is both animated and tender.