A plaster bust of Rear-Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke (1776-1841) by Samuel James Bouverie Haydon (1815-1891)

This fascinating bust represents Rear-Admiral Broke in the very last days of his life, when he was undergoing an operation at Bayley's Hotel in London to ease the pressure on his brain caused by the head wound from a cutlass blow he had received in the action with the Chesapeake in 1813.  He did not recover and died there on 2nd January 1841. The bust was completed the following day.

Haydon was the son of Samuel Haydon, a naval paymaster who exhibited at the RA between 1840 and 1876, including busts of Major General Goldfinch KCB, Rear-Admiral D. Pleydell-Bouverie and the Earl of Radnor.  His brother George Henry Haydon (1822-91) was a prominent writer and artist based in Melbourne where he was probably acquainted with Charles Summers, sculptor of the heroic bust of Broke in this sale (see lot 1024).