Samuel Percy

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Samuel Percy (* around 1750 in Dublin , † around 1820 in London ) was an Irish wax modeler and sculptor.

Life

Samuel Percy trained at the Dublin Society's Schools. In 1772 he participated in an exhibition of the Society for the first time with a clay relief showing Abraham at the sacrifice of Isaac. He later moved to London, where he quickly became known as a portraitist. His wax portraits initially showed the people depicted in profile; From around the late 1780s, Percy also modeled faces in frontal view.

In 1786 he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy. By this time he had already completed 800 portraits. Among his portraits were images of King George III. and the Queen Charlotte .

Work technique and works

Percy first carved his works in hard wax, from which he then took a plaster cast. In this plaster mold, colored wax pieces, which were supposed to represent hair and other details, were then placed layer by layer before the mold was filled with liquid wax. He also furnished some portraits with glass eyes or jewelery.

Percy created portraits of living and dead nobles and celebrities, but offered his services to any client for a guinean and a half . Death masks were also part of his repertoire; he also created genre scenes in the style of Gaetano Zumbo . Percy's works can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and in the Queen's art collection in Windsor .

In 1798 he created a profile picture of the Polish "dwarf" Józef Boruwłaski , which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . The National Portrait Gallery houses Richard Reynolds and Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales , and the Philadelphia Museum of Art houses a portrait of a young girl.

In 1963 a pub interior was rediscovered by Percy's hand in the magazine of the London Museum at Kensington Palace , and it featured numerous celebrities of the time: Samuel Johnson , Sir Joshua Reynolds , Thomas Gainsborough , Topham Beauclerk , Charles James Fox , Joseph Nollekens and Thomas Wharton. Those interested in medicine are particularly interested in Johnson's swollen legs, which were faithfully reproduced and made it possible to date the work to 1783 or later.

In 1806 he took part in the tender for the Guildhall - Nelsondenkmal , but was unsuccessful. Just as unsuccessfully, he also applied for the contract to design the Guildhall memorial for William Pitt, a memorial for the 5th Duke of Bedford and one for Sir George Savile .

literature

  • G. Bernard Hughes: Wax Portraits by Samuel Percy . In: Country Life , 117, May 12, 1955, pp. 1255-1257, ISSN  0045-8856 .
  • G. Bernard Hughes: Portraits modeled in wax . In: Country Life , 131, March 22, 1962, pp. 658-659, ISSN  0045-8856 .

Web links

Commons : Samuel Percy  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ The point in time is controversial: While the National Portrait Gallery mentions the year 1777, Priscilla Grace gives 1785.
  2. ^ The Death of Voltaire at collections.vam.ac.uk, accessed November 28, 2010
  3. ↑ Priscilla Grace: A Wax Miniature of Joseph Boruwlaski. In: Metropolitan Museum Journal , 15, 1980, pp. 175-182, JSTOR 1512759 ; metmuseum.org (PDF; 1.1 MB).
  4. ^ Samuel Percy (1750–1820) at npg.org.uk, accessed November 28, 2010
  5. ↑ Portrait of a Young Girl, attributed to Samuel Percy at philamuseum.org; Retrieved November 28, 2010
  6. ^ LC McHenry: Neurological disorders of Dr Samuel Johnson. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Volume 78, Number 6, June 1985, pp. 485-491, PMID 3889335 , PMC 1289780 (free full text).
  7. ↑ Doctor Johnson's Autopsy, or Anecdotal Immortality ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Helen Deutsch: Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation , June 22, 1999 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  8. ↑ Alexander Gode: Just Words. In: JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 206, 1968, p. 2509, doi: 10.1001 / jama.1968.03150110057009 .
  9. ^ Notes and queries from the PMSA office ( Memento of August 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), March 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Percy, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish sculptor and wax modeller
DATE OF BIRTH around 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH around 1820
Place of death London