George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773-1859) Master of the Horse to Queen Victoria

Location

Country: France
City: Paris
Place: British Embassy

The sitter twice held the office of lord chamberlain in the household of William IV, in 1830 and 1834-5, and twice that of master of the horse to Queen Victoria in 1841-6 and 1851. He received an honorary degree at Oxford in 1812, was appointed a privy councillor 1830, and a knight grand cross of the Guelphs of Hanover in 1834. In 1804 he married the prospective heiress of the banker Robert Child, and in 1819 assumed the name Child as an additional name. He succeeded to the earldom in 1805, and he and his wife had eight children. His wife, who owned the chief intetest in Child's bank at Temple Bar, was for many years a leader of the best society in London. The sitter died in London in October 1859 and was buried at Middleton Stoney.

Joseph Nollekens, son of Joseph Francis Nollekens, a painter from Antwerp, was born in Dean Street, Soho. He studied under the sculptor Peter Scheemakers, before attending William Shipley’s drawing school on the Strand. In 1762 he travelled to Rome where he worked as an antiques dealer, restorer and copier, as well as sculpting portraits of English tourists. By 1771, he had returned to London and taken a house in Mortimer Street, Marylebone. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1772. He sculpted several church monuments and mythological subjects but it was his portrait busts which grew in popularity throughout his career. His final years were plagued by ill health and by 1816 he was almost deaf. He died at the age of 85.

People

George, 5th Earl of Jersey Child-Villiers (1773 - 1859)

Places

Subjects

male portrait, man, Royal Guelphic Order/Royal Hanoverian order, Earl

Materials & Techniques

marble, bust (as object name), marble bust

Artist

Joseph Nollekens (1737 - 1823)

Title

George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773-1859) Master of the Horse to Queen Victoria

Date

c.1808

Medium

Marble bust

Dimensions

height: 71.00 cm, width: 49.00 cm, depth: 25.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Gerald Kerin, June 1949

Inscription

none

Provenance

Earl of Jersey Collection; purchased from Gerald Kerin 1949

GAC number

771