Lot 165: A WAX PORTRAIT RELIEF, BY RICHARD COCKLE LUCAS, SIGNED, INSCRIBED AND DATED 1850

of: The Very Revd. T. Garnier, Dean of Winton, in profile to sinister, wearing high stock and vestments, on an oval brown wax ground

height 16.5cm, 6 1/2 in

Richard Cockle Lucas (1800-1883) was born in Salisbury and died in Chilworth, Hampshire. Apprenticed at the age of 12 to an uncle who was a cutler, he later attended the Royal Academy Schools where he won several medals. His model of the Parthenon (1845) was bought by the British Museum and there was considerable dispute as to whether he was the author of a bust of Flora in Berlin, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.

Lucas executed a number of portraits of Dean Garnier (another of 1850 is in the National Portrait Gallery - NPG 4844). The divine (1776-1873), of Huguenot origin, had become Prebendary of Winchester in 1830 and Dean in 1840. He was a friend of Palmerston and a staunch Whig.