Lot 133: DR WILLIAM CROTCH 1775-1847

inscribed verso: N^o 1 Sir Joseph Lock's Organ Room Oxford/over the organ, a Cast of Roubillac's mon^t of Handel of Westminster Abbey/& 2 Sphinxes - The original Egyptian Sphinx is supposed by some to be the figure of some animal w^ch has by opine assumed a/resemblance to the female face & bust - others say it is a combination of/the 2 summer signs of the Lion & M the Virgin/Copied August 31 1842 The original is in oblique perspective/The organ was built for his own daughter by England

watercolour over black chalk, unframed

18 by 23 cm., 7 by 9 in.

Dr Crotch was a musical phenomenon at a young age, giving public organ recitals at the age of two and a half and playing to the King aged three. He was regarded as one of England's foremost composers and was Professor of Music at Oxford for fifty years.

Sir Joseph Lock was the mayor of Oxford at the time. The cast of Handel mentioned in the inscription was executed by the composer's friend, Roubilliac in 1762 and installed in Westminster Abbey. A terracotta of this subject is in the Ashmolean Museum and many casts were produced in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The 'England' referred to by Crotch in the inscription on the verso of the present drawing is the organ-builder George England (fl.1740-1788) or his son, George Pike England (c.1765-1814)