Joseph Gott’s blemished portrait bust of Benjamin Gott: reinterpretation of the archive

What is it about?

This article is the first major (if limited) discussion in over 40 years of the important British sculptor Joseph Gott, who moved to Rome in 1822, where he worked and lived for the remainder of his life. Alongside the logistics of shipping completed sculptural commissions from Rome to his patrons overseas, the article discusses the sculptor’s relations with his most important patron, Benjamin Gott (a second cousin of the sculptor and a leading British industrialist) and with the President of the Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Lawrence. Significantly, the article publishes an important recent discovery that in turn reveals Lawrence to have commissioned what is arguably Joseph Gott’s most important ad vivum portrait, a bust of Benjamin Gott. Lawrence’s documented regard for the sculptor is reconsidered in the light of that revelation, and alongside other works by the sculptor, including his recently located bust of Napoleon (a rare and striking British portrait of the Emperor). Those works demonstrate the extent to which that the sculptor’s skill in modelling and in carving the finished marble works justified Lawrence’s praise of Gott’s ‘genius’.

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Why is it important?

In addition to discussing the logistics of shipping completed sculptures overseas in the early nineteenth century, the article reveals a hitherto unknown work by the sculptor that in turn leads to the identity of the real commissioner of his most important portrait bust. In the light of those revelations, and alongside other works by the sculptor (including his recently located bust of Napoleon, missing for over 115 years) the article re-assesses the President of the Royal Academy's support for and praise of the sculptor.

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