{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1258272"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1258272/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GH8773/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2013GH8773/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2013GH8773","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8772","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8774","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8775","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8776","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8777","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8778","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8779","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GH8780","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1258272/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1258272","accessionNumber":"A.1-2013","objectType":"Marble bust","titles":[{"title":"Lady Elizabeth Finch (1703-84)","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This marble bust, inscribed Henrietta Finch (1702-1742) and dated 1741, is a copy of a bust thought to be of Lady Elizabeth Finch (1703-84) by Louis Francois Roubiliac at Kenwood, London, previously dated c.1745. As the present marble is a lesser copy of the Kenwood sculpture, it is likely that the Roubiliac at Kenwood is in fact slightly earlier than previously thought, probably around 1740. Because of the inscription on the pedestal, the present bust was once thought to be a portrait of Lady Henrietta Finch, Lady Elizabeth's sister. However, it is more likely that it was in fact made by Henrietta: in a family portrait from the early 1730s, now in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Henrietta is shown standing next to a modelling stand on sits a bust, accompanied with various modelling tools, as if she were in fact a practising sculptor. This would mean that the inscription is a signature, rather than one identifying the sitter. As such, it is an exceptional example of a marble sculpture by an eighteenth-century female sculptor in Britain. Although aristocratic women at the time were often meant to acquire some artistic skills, and learning how to model clay could have been considered appropriate, carving marble was very different.  \r\nIt is also an interesting example of a copy, reflecting the idea of multiples in sculpture that was prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries. The V&amp;A's acquisition of this bust means that it joins other busts and monuments of members of the Finch family already in the collection. A pair of silver-gilt salvers by Charles Kandler, celebrating the marriage of Henrietta Finch to William Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland in 1731/2, is also in the V&amp;A as part of the Gilbert collection. (See references)\r\nIn 1738, Lady Elizabeth Finch married the judge William Murray who later became 1st Earl of Mansfield. They had no children together, but took care of their grand-niece Elizabeth Murray (born in 1760) whose mother had died, and of Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1820), illegitimate daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved woman from the British Indies, and Sir John Lindsay, William Murray’s nephew. In 1765, Lindsay brought Dido Belle with him to England and entrusted the Murrays to bring her into a free gentlewoman at their home in Kenwood House. \r\n","physicalDescription":"Marble bust of a woman on later marble socle.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Henrietta Finch","id":"AUTH324871"},"association":{"text":"Sculptor","id":"x43862"},"note":""},{"name":{"text":"Roubiliac, Louis-François","id":"A8805"},"association":{"text":"copy after","id":"THES286695"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Marble","id":"AAT11443"}],"techniques":[{"text":"Carved","id":"AAT53149"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved marble.","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2013GH8773","2013GH8772","2013GH8774","2013GH8775","2013GH8776","2013GH8777","2013GH8778","2013GH8779","2013GH8780"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"22","id":"THES49843"},"free":"","case":"PL1","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"bust","id":"AAT47457"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased partly using funds from Hildburgh Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"70 cm","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Bust and socle","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"55","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Bust alone","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"43","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Henrietta Finch 1741","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"This is probably the signature of the sculptor, and the date in which she made the bust of her sister Elizabeth. The bust is almost certainly a copy of a bust by Louis Francois Roubiliac. "}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bust, marble, of Lady Elizabeth Finch, probably by her sister Henrietta Finch, English, 1741.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"A pair of silver-gilt salvers marked by Charles Kandler which celebrates the marriage of Henrietta Finch to William Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Cleveland in 1731/2 is also at the V&A, as part of the Gilbert collection:\n\nhttp://web.archive.org/web/20230201141611/https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O156660/salver-kandler-charles/"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Malcolm Baker, “Henrietta Finch, Sculptor?”,  <i>The Burlington Magazine</i>, vol. 156, no. 1334, 2014, pp. 299–302."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Elizabeth Finch","id":"N1535"},{"text":"Henrietta Finch","id":"AUTH324871"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Lady Henrietta Finch (died 1742)\r\nLady Elizabeth Finch (1703–84)\r\nSigned and dated 1741\n\r\nThis bust, which portrays the artist’s sister, is one of the earliest known British sculptures made by a woman. It is a variant of a marble portrait bust of Elizabeth Finch by the famous 18th-century sculptor, Louis François Roubiliac, now at Kenwood House, London. Sculptures of other members of the Finch family are also on display in this gallery.\n\r\nLondon\r\nMarble","date":{"text":"2021","earliest":"2021-01-01","latest":"2021-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["A.1-2013"],"accessionNumberNum":"1","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":2013,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-15","recordCreationDate":"2012-12-06","availableToBook":false}}