Lot 7: Heinrich Maximilian Imhof Swiss, 1795-1869 , Hagar and Ishmael

signed and dated: ENRICO IMHOF FEC. ROMA 1851 white marble, on a painted wood plinth (2)

measurements note group: 114 by 63.5cm., 45 by 25in. base: 70 by 73.5 by 55.5cm., 27½ by 29 by 22in.

The Guildhall, Sandwich, Kent

A slightly later example of Imhof's Hagar and Ishmael, dating to 1856, was purchased for the Royal Free Museum and Library in Peel Park, Salford by Edward Ryley Langworthy, the Manchester merchant and one-time mayor. It was acquired by the Richards family of Gawsworth Hall before being sold in the these rooms in 1993. It is therefore interesting to note that the present version, dating to 1851, also comes with a municipal UK provenance: the Guildhall in Sandwich, Kent. It is not known how it arrived there.

Imhof created a series of marble groups with Old Testament subjects such as Ruth, David and Rebecca and the original plaster models, including the Hagar and Ishmael of 1845, survive in the Kunstmuseum in Berne. The museum also contains Imhof's marble Eve Before the Fall (1862-64), which was intended to decorate the Bundeshaus. His 1848 marble group of The Mother of Moses is in the The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Imhof was born in Bürglen, Switzerland and studied under Dannecker in Stuttgart and Thorvaldsen in Rome, where he settled. He was commissioned to execute portraits and 'Ideal' statues by members of the aristocracy throughout Europe. He exhibited once in England, at the Royal Academy in 1846.