Lot 92: A MARBLE BUST OF WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER

A MARBLE BUST OF WILLIAM PITT THE YOUNGER BY WILLIAM FISHER OF YORK (1776-1815), AFTER JOSEPH NOLLEKENS, CIRCA 1810 Inscribed 'W Fisher/ Sculpt.' to reverse; on a circular marble socle 23 ¼ in. (59 cm.) high; 28 1/8 in. (71.5 cm.) high, overall

(59 cm.) high

CIRCA 1810

The most honourable The Marquis of Clanricarde, KP Deceased Inventory of The Collection of Pictures..., Christie, Manson & Woods, September 1916, p. 116 [Harewood House Archives]. I. Roscoe (ed.) et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, Yale, 2009, p. 433 and 438.

Charles John Canning (1812-1862), 1st Earl Canning, Viceroy of India (1858-62), thence by bequest to his first cousin, Hubert George de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (1832-1916), thence by bequest to his great-nephew, Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882-1947) and by descent.

The present bust was owned by Earl Canning, a senior politician in the administrations of Sir Robert Peel and Lord Palmerston. He was best known as the Viceroy of India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, in which his calm judgement and the leniency he showed to the mutineers led to the nickname 'Clemency Canning'. The bust then passed to his cousin, the 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde, until his death in 1916, when it was part of the Clanricarde Bequest to the 6th Earl of Harewood. It has been at Harewood ever since, and was last listed in situ in the Spanish Library. William Fisher was one of the most prominent members of a large family of sculptors, who worked predominantly in Yorkshire for aristocratic families such as the Earls of Rockingham. He entered the City of London's competition for a monument to commemorate William Pitt in Guildhall and in 1806 he wrote that 'he was engaged with Mr. [Joseph] Nollekens, Mortimer Street'. Pitt had died in 1806 and soon after Nollekens had taken a death mask. Such was the popularity of the subsequent bust, Fisher would have been employed to help Nollekens complete the rush of orders. The present bust was probably signed by Fisher due to the high quality of the carving.