Lot 232: Henry Weekes, R.A. (1807-1877)

Master Beaufoy
signed and dated to the front edge 'H. WEEKES A.R.A. SC. 1855'
marble, on mahogany plinth
The marble: 19 3/4 in. (50.2 cm.) high; 37 in. (94 cm.) wide at base; 18 3/4 in. (47.6 cm.) deep at base; The plinth: 24 in. (61 cm.) high (2)

London, Royal Academy, 1855, no. 1411, "Thus early down the stream of life I swam, etc".

R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors - 1660-1851, London, 1951, pp. 418-420.

George Beaufoy, R.N. (1796-1864); and by descent.

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Born in Canterbury in 1807, Henry Weekes's distinctive talent for modelling was first recognised by his father and with the latter's encouragement he became a student at the Royal Academy. After serving his apprenticeship, Weekes took a position in the studio of Sir Francis Chantrey. Immediately recognising the potential of his pupil, Chantrey assigned Weekes as principal modeller and such was his esteem for his assistant that on his death in 1841, he left the young sculptor the sum of £1,000 and the expressed request that he should be allowed to complete his own unfinished works. By means of this munificent bequest, Weekes was able to purchase his own studio and immerse himself in developing his own distinct style, advancing the ideas of a combined classicism and realism throughout his work.

Weekes approach to sculpture proved itself to be much favoured by the Victorians and, as if symbolically, he was the first sculptor to receive patronage from the newly-crowned Queen Victoria, who commissioned and sat for a portrait bust. Thereafter Weekes's reputation was secured and he continued to amass clientele amongst such influential personages as the Duke of Marlborough and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Further distinction was awarded when he was invited to exhibit at the most prestigious of contemporary art events, the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.

The present portrait of George Beaufoy, who died in infancy probably in 1854, was commissioned by his father, also George, and exhibited by Weekes at the Royal Academy in 1855. In 1851, Beaufoy, a retired captain in the Navy, had taken over the highly successful family vinegar distilling business established in 1746 at Cuper's Gardens, Lambeth, by his great-uncle, Mark Beaufoy (d. 1782). On George Beaufoy senior's death in 1864, the distilling business was left in trust to his ten-year old surviving son, Mark Hanbury Beaufoy. As MP for Kennington, the latter is chiefly remembered for his support both of the reduction of the working day and the introduction of the eight-hour day. Mark Beaufoy also inherited this tender portrait of his deceased elder brother, displaying it at Coombe House, the mansion he had built in Shaftesbury, Dorset. After Mark's death in 1922, Coombe House was sold by his son Henry and the marble taken first to Caron Place, the family home in Vauxhall, and then, after the latter was bombed in 1941, to Hill House, Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire. When Henry died in 1958, 'Master Beaufoy' was inherited by his only child, Prudence Guild, and in the early 1960s was then passed down to the present owner, the infant George Beaufoy's great-nephew.

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