Hussey, Giles (1710-1788, Attributed to), Bust of Caligula, sanguine chalk on laid paper

Hussey (Giles,1710-1788). Roman bust of Caligula, from three-quarter profile to profil perdu, sanguine chalk on fine laid paper with watermark initials HR, 37.5 x 23 cm (14 3/4 x 9 1/8 ins), in good condition, taped to the mount verso, framed and glazed, inscribed on reverse of frame 'Probably from album of thirty drawings selected by Benjamin West 'Coll: Lord Manchester P.Q.' (50 x 35.5 cm)

(Qty: 1)

Provenance: Estate of Michael Jaffe (1923-1997), art historian and former director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The artist, most famed for creating the first, highly finished portrait drawings of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 'The Younger Pretender', also produced fine neoclassical line drawings such as the present work. It is akin to the thirty-six drawings loosely inserted in a folio album of eighteenth-century red morocco, with the arms of the Duke of Manchester, which was sold to Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA in 1967, who presented it to the Yale Center for British Art (B1977.14.2825V). An end-paper was inscribed: “The extraordinary outlines contained in this book (by Hussey) were selected by Benjn West as some of the best specimens of the artist.” The American artist Benjamin West (1728-1820) was a fervent neoclassicist, patronised by George III. Our drawing is the same size as the sanguine line drawing, a Head of Pan, now in the British Museum, 2015,7087.2, which was removed from the album before sale. The album, now containing 35 drawings, includes pen studies of the Laöcoon, other statues and a series of red chalk outlines of Roman emperors, Greek philosophers and statesmen. Tate Britain holds other examples of the artist’s neoclassical drawings.