In a curious MS. Diary of the early part of the seventeenth century, lately
come into my possession, I find the following entry concerning the
sculptor, Hubert le Soeur:--
"March 7. 1628. Had an interview with y^e famous and justly renowned
artiste H. le Sueur, who, being late come to this countrie, I had never
seene before. He showed me several famous statues in brasse."
This is probably the earliest notice of the celebrated pupil of John of
Bologna after his settlement in England. Dallaway, in his _Anecdotes of the
Arts in England_ (p. 395.), after stating that Hubert le Soeur arrived here
about the year 1630, says,--
"If he was associated with Pierre Tacca, who finished the horse in the
equestrian statue of Henry IV. in 1610, left incomplete on the death of
his master, John of Bologna, two years preceding, he must have been far
advanced in life. Three only of his works in bronze are now known with
certainty to exist: the equestrian statue of Charles I. [at Charing
Cross], a bust of the same monarch with a casque in the Roman style
[now at Stourhead], and a statue in armour of William Herbert, Earl of
Pembroke, Lord High Chamberlain and Chancellor of Oxford. The last was
given to the University by T., Earl of Pembroke, about the time of the
restoration."
The "several famous statues in brasse" alluded to by the writer of the
Diary above quoted, were probably those which afterwards ornamented the
gardens of St. James's Palace. Peacham, in his _Complete Gentleman_ (2nd
edit., 4to. 1634), having spoken of the collection of statues at Arundell
House, says:--
"King Charles also, ever since his coming to the Crown, hath amply
testified a royal liking of ancient Statues, by causing a whole army of
foreign Emperors, Captains, and Senators, all at once to land on his
coasts, to come and do him homage and attend him in his Palaces of
Saint James and Somerset House. A great part of these belonged to the
great Duke of Mantua; and some of the old Greek marble bases, columns,
and altars were brought from the ruins of Apollo's temple at Delos, by
that noble and absolutely complete gentleman, Sir Kenelm Digby, Kn^t.
In the garden of St. James, there are also _half a dozen brass
statues_, rare ones, cast by Hubert le Sueur, his Majesty's servant,
now dwelling in St. Bartholomew's, London; the most industrious and
excellent statuary, in all materials, that ever this country enjoyed.
The best of them is the Gladiator, moulded from that in Cardinal
Borghesi's Villa, by the procurement and industry of ingenious Master
Gage. And at this present, the said Master Sueur hath divers other
admirable moulds to cast in brass for his Majesty, and among the rest,
that famous Diana of Ephesus. But the great Horse with his Majesty upon
it, twice as great as the life, and now well nigh finished, will
compare with that of the New Bridge at Paris, or those others at
Florence and Madrid, though made by Sueur, his master John de Bologna,
that rare workman, who not long since lived at Florence."
The bronze statue of the Gladiator originally stood (according to Ned
Ward's _London Spy_) in the Parade facing the Horse Guards. Dodsley
(_Environs_, iii. 741.) says it was removed by Queen Anne to Hampton Court,
and from thence, by George the Fourth, to the private grounds of Windsor
Castle, where it now is. Query, What has become of the other five "famous
statues in brass?"