The Life of Anne Damer by Gross Jonathan David;

Author:Gross, Jonathan David; [Gross, Jonathan David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2013-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Damer as Sculptor, Attempts at a Brief Catalogue Raisonné

The greatest Female Artist ever known

—Horace Walpole on Anne Damer1

Anne’s reputation as a sculptor has grown.2 Works she once gave away now sell for 5000 pounds. Featured in an exhibit entitled “Hounds in Leash” as the “first acknowledged specialist in the field, she inspires praise for her stone terriers, spaniels, and other breeds.”3 Even her kittens, first sculpted for Lady Melbourne and copied for Horace Walpole, merit renewed attention. Yet Anne also portrayed aristocratic women, talented actors, political statesmen, and military figures. Anne’s sculptures rival Adderbury’s gallery, once owned by the Argylls. The Baroque Roubiliac and Carlini haunted her neoclassical imagination as she rendered famous personalities in stone. In her day, Horace Walpole gave Anne’s work pride of place. Her Fishing Eagle (1787) was in the center of his library, her Sleeping Dogs in the little parlor, and the kittens (1784) she designed for Lady Melbourne in a glass case in his green closet.4

The Duchess of Devonshire (1777) and Lady Melbourne (1780) were crucial to Anne’s career as a sculptor. Her first busts were of them. A terracotta of the Duchess survives only in Joseph Nollekens’ marble version, but remains one of the earliest examples of Anne’s work. The Lady Melbourne bust is her first in marble (1784), though a 1780 terracotta exists. In the end, it was the witches ‘round the cauldron who exerted the greatest influence on her life, personally and professionally.

In 1780, Anne also portrayed Miss Caroline Campbell in terracotta. Campbell was Anne’s cousin (1764-1783), the daughter of her uncle.5 The attention to Campbell’s long hair recalls Roubiliac, before Anne studied sculpture with Bacon. Another important influence was Isaac Gosset (1713–1799), who modeled in wax and built frames for established artists. He worked for Allan Ramsay between 1770 and 1779 and for William Hoare, Thomas Gainsborough, and probably William Hogarth. In 1751 George Vertue praised Isaac Gosset’s skills as a modeler of portrait profiles in wax. He thought of frame carving as Gosset’s true business, adding that Gosset would carve for persons willing to pay him well for his labors.6 He made frames for Lady Egremont, who lived at Petworth, a connection that would have brought him into the circle of Anne and the Duchess of Richmond. Like Isaac Gosset, she shows off her talent in this more pliant medium. Walpole lists a bust of Lady Ailesbury, Voltaire, Sir Hamilton’s Augustus, and Miss Caroline Campbell as “in the manner of Gosset.”7

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