Attributed to the Workshop of Michael Rysbrack

Flemish by birth, Michael Rysbrack arrived in London in 1720, having trained under Michiel van der Voort I in Antwerp. He worked for many years with the celebrated architect James Gibbs, collaborating on numerous important funerary commissions, including one for a pair of figures of the muses Clio and Euterpe for the tomb of the poet Matthew Prior. Flanking a bust of Prior by the great sculptor to the French royal court, Antoine Coysevox, these elegant statues launched Rysbrack’s reputation. The British public were captivated by the Fleming’s inventiveness and soon he could count Lord Burlington, Richard Temple, 1^st Viscount Cobham, and, of course, Sarah, 1^st Duchess of Marlborough, amongst his most loyal patrons. Sarah Churchill’s patronage led him to create one of his most important tombs, that of John Churchill, 1^st Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, as well as busts of both the Duke and Duchess, and a life-size statue of Queen Anne. Rysbrack’s greatest public commission was his equestrian statue of King William III in Queen Square Bristol of 1733-1736, which he won in the face of younger, and increasingly fashionable, competition from Peter Scheemakers. Important works by Rysbrack can be found in many of the world’s leading museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The present bust of Cromwell is derived from Rysbrack's historicising portrait of the English leader, of which the prime terracotta version is in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich (inv. no. SCU0014).

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