John Warrington Wood, 'Sir Austen Henry Layard', 1881
About the work
Overview
Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894) commissioned this marble bust of himself from the sculptor John Warrington Wood in Rome in 1881. It was remodelled from a bust sculpted by Wood in London in 1869, which was exhibited the following year at the Royal Academy. Layard was not pleased with the original bust so had this version made 12 years later. It is chiselled ‘AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD’ across the front.
Layard’s archaeological excavations in Assyria made his name while he was still only in his early thirties. Most of his massive finds from Nimrud and Nineveh now form the greater part of the British Museum’s collection of Assyrian antiquities.
He entered Parliament and held Cabinet office; served as ambassador in Madrid and Constantinople; became a Trustee of the National Gallery; and built up a large collection of paintings, mainly of works by Italian artists, most of which he bequeathed to the National Gallery.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Sir Austen Henry Layard
- Artist
- John Warrington Wood
- Artist dates
- 1839 - 1886
- Date made
- 1881
- Medium and support
- marble, carved
- Dimensions
- 64 × 37 × 25.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated and inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by Vice-Admiral Arthur John Layard Murray, 1943
- Inventory number
- NG5449
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1849A.H. Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains, London 1849
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1853A.H. Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, London 1853
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1857A.H. Layard, 'The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition', Quarterly Review, 1857
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1859A.H. Layard, Giovanni Santi and the Frescoes of Cagli, London 1859
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1859A.H. Layard, 'Architecture of All Countries', Quarterly Review, 1859
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1859A.H. Layard, 'The National Gallery', Quarterly Review, 1859
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1860A.H. Layard, Domenico Ghirlandaio and His Fresco of the Death of St Francis, London 1860
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1861A.H. Layard, 'German, Flemish and Dutch Art', Quarterly Review, 1961
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1862A.H. Layard, 'Paper on Mosaic Decoration', The Builder, 1862
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1872A.H. Layard, 'Italian Painters', Quarterly Review, 1872
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1886A.H. Layard, 'The National Gallery', Quarterly Review, 1886
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1887F. Kugler, Handbook of Painting: The Italian Schools, eds C.L. Eastlake and A.H. Layard, 5th edn, London 1887
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1887A.H. Layard, Early Adventures, London 1887
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1888A.H. Layard, 'The National Portrait Gallery', Quarterly Review, 1888
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1892A.H. Layard, 'Introduction', in G. Morelli, Italian Painters, London 1892
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1903A.H. Layard, Sir A. Henry Layard, G.C.B., D.C.L.: Autobiography and Letters, ed. W.N. Bruce, London 1903
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1907U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols, Leipzig 1907
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1946Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
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1955The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
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1959Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1963G. Waterfield, Layard of Nineveh, London 1963
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1966G. Waterfield, 'Henry Layard: Nineteenth Century Aesthete', Apollo, 1966
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1976M.H. Port, The Houses of Parliament, London 1976
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1978D. Robertson, Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World, Princeton 1978
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1983J. Reade, Assyrian Sculpture, London 1983
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1987F.M. Fales and B.J. Hickey (eds), Austen Henry Layard tra l'Oriente e Venezia: Venezia, 26-28 ottobre 1983, Rome 1987
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1992I. Jenkins, Archaeologists and Aesthetes in the Sculpture Galleries of the British Museum 1800-1939, London 1992
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1993A. Brilli, 'Layard di Ninive, Spinello Aretino e Piero Della Francesca', in A. Brilli (ed.), Piero della Francesca nella cultura europea e americana, Città di Castello 1993, pp. 7-14
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1993M. Lennon, 'Morelli and the Layard Collection: Influence as Intellectual Exchange', in G. Agosti (ed.), Giovanni Morelli e la Cultura dei Conoscitori: Atti del Convegno Internazionale, June 1987, Bergamo 1993, pp. 242-52
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1998J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
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2000Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.