Thomas Campbell (1790-1858) A set of plaster maquettes of the four seasons for the keystones on the staircase of the South Front at Chatsworth, circa 1848

each of a massive female mask, one inscribed; 'to be spring with flowers', each mask with foliate motifs, one example lacking borders and all with losses and breaks (4)

 

The Duchess of Devonshire, Chatsworth - The House, London, 2002, p. 130, one illustrated in the Granary.

Interesting and impressive pieces with losses and breaks. Three have been recently restored where corners had broken off. One is entirely missing its frame. All have a build up of dust and dirt and all have significant chips, mainly to the extremities. Very decorative.
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Sir Jeffry Wyatville was responsible for the rearrangement of the external staircase on the South Front of Chatsworth. In the Handbook, p. 165, The 6th Duke wrote 'and now, in this South front, you perceive that its architecture remains unaltered, except for the steps which are wholly rebuilt, containing nothing of the old materials...' Clearly the Duke felt that Wyatville's work required decoration and four years later there is correspondence between himself and the sculptor Thomas Campbell regrading this work. On the 25th August 1848 Campbell writes that he has 'commenced the models for the keystones and asks for a slight sketch, an elevation of the arch from which I could judge more perfectly of the effect to be produced'. This letter was annotated by the Duke with 'send Mr Campbell what he wants'. On the 19th of October of that year Campbell dispatched his mask of Summer and says in another letter 'if it not sufficiently made out for the carver I shall bestow more labour on them. The case may be returned & I shall I send another next week'. Yet a further cast was sent in November and presumably the last followed shortly after. The maquettes were passed onto the Duke's stone masons resulting in the keystones of The Seasons that remain in situ.

The 6th Duke had become acquainted with Thomas Campbell in Rome and this had resulted firstly in a colossal marble bust of the Duke in 1823. Thereafter, things did not go as smoothly and it is surprising that the Duke should reemploy Campbell who had given him such a run around with the seated statue of Paulina Borghese, ordered in March 1824 but which despite Ducal pleas failed to complete until 1840.

Campbell's drawings for all four heads are kept in the volume of the 6th Duke's Sculpture Correspondence and Accounts (Devonshire Papers).