Friday 6 November 2015

The Rysbrack Statuettes of Rubens, van Dyck and du Quesnoy, Part 2. The Green Grisailles.

The Grisailles signed W. Greene Jnr. Pinxit. 1747.
A set of nine, oils on canvas, three views
each of Van Dyck, Rubens and du Quesnoy,
710 x 438 mm.
These paintings are now dispersed and their whereabouts unknown.
 
The following images of these grisailles by William Greene are unfortunately all scans from low quality photocopies or other printed sources, but still manage to show the quality of the original Rysbrack terracottas.
 

The Three Grisailles of the original terracotta statuette of van Dyck by William Green.
 signed W. Greene Jnr. Pinxit. 1747.
each - 710 x 438 mm.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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The Three Grisailles of the original terracotta statuette of Rubens by William Green.
 Signed W. Greene Jnr. Pinxit. 1747.
Each - 710 x 438 mm.
 
 
 
 
 
 The Grisaille above was exhibited in 1979 at Somerset House in the  Art Treasures Exhibition.
 
 
 
 
An Oxford Book Auction,
William Green, 1747.
Signed Greene Junr. Pinx 1747.
Bodleian Library Oxford.
The signature is very close to that on the grisailles.
Greene appears to have been acquainted with both Gibbs and Rysbrack, he engraved the headpiece for the proclamation for the opening of the Radcliffe Camera (Eustace).
 
Literature:
 
Michael Rysbrack Sculptor, MI Webb, pub Country Life 1954.
Dictionary of 18th Century Painters, Waterhouse, 1981.
Michael Rysbrack, Katherine Eustace, City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 1982.
Sculpture in Britain, 1530 -1830, Margaret Whinney, 1992
 
Eustace is still the most useful work on the portrait sculpture of Michael Rysbrack.