Sir Christopher Wren

(a) Wren as a Man of Forty (Plate II.).—When I saw this, it was in the possession of the late Mrs. Catherine Pigott. It is now, I believe, in the possession of the Bishop of Southwell, to whom it passed on Mrs. Pigott’s death. It is unsigned, and there is no record as to its authorship. It shows Wren as a young man, and I had thought it represented him while in the twenties. Mr. Richard W. Goulding, F.S.A., dates the cravat about 1675, which would make Wren forty-three. The modelling of the face is not unlike that of the Pearce bust, which tends to confirm the age as about forty.

(b) The Wadham College Portrait (Plate XIII.).—This is in itself a poor piece of painting, and has a vague history. It is an 1825 copy by John Smith, of Oxford, deriving ultimately, it is said, from a Kneller portrait at Lambeth Palace, which, I am informed, has disappeared. It seems rather to be based on the Sheldonian portrait, which was attributed by Dallaway to Thornhill, “painted in conjunction with Verrio and Kneller.” I give the unlikely story of its authorship as it is told, adding only that as the plan in Wren’s hand shows the St. Paul’s of the Warrant Design or later, it must be after 1675, and therefore Wren is depicted as a man of forty-three or more, probably a good deal more, for he is markedly older than in the last mentioned.

(c) Bust by Edward Pearce at the Ashmolean (Plate V.).—This beautiful work has been dated 1673, by a letter written by Christopher, the architect’s son, and quoted by Mr. Lionel Cust. It may well be Wren as a man of forty-one, and the younger Christopher’s date can be accepted, but he was very casual in his chronologies.

(d) The Royal Society Portrait.—The legend on the frame says this picture is by Michael Wright, but Mr. Collins Baker attributes it, on the ground of style, to Riley and Closterman in collaboration. He claims that it is the basis of the Kirkall engraving (see next note). If so, Kirkall turned the face the other way. The view of St. Paul’s shows a transitional design between the Warrant Design with its nightmare steeple and the dome as built. The clock towers are almost exactly like the intermediate design preserved at All Souls. I suggest it shows a man of seventy.

(e) The Kirkall Engraving after Closterman (Plate XV.).—This rare portrait was given to me by Mrs. Pigott shortly before her death, and apart from its having been, as she told me, an heirloom in the Wren family, it has an interest as showing Elisha Kirkall’s “chiaroscuro” style of engraving interpreting Closterman’s portrait.

(f) The St. Paul’s Deanery Portrait (Plate XIV.).—This is a copy of the best known portrait of all, the Kneller at the National Portrait Gallery, and an inferior copy, for it reveals a man of far less distinction, both in character and feature, than the National portrait. The latter is attributed to the year 1711, and is therefore of Wren when he was nearly eighty.

(g) The Welbeck Portrait (Plate IV.).—The picture is a small whole length on panel. The architect wears a red dressing-gown with white lining, white stockings, and red shoes; his right hand is placed on his hip, and in his left hand he holds a drawing of the elevation of the façade of St. Paul’s. On the left side of the picture there is a lurid sky indicative of the burning of the City; in the right-hand top corner is a bust of Charles II., flanked by an amorino weighing the insignia of royalty (crown, sceptre, etc.), against four shields of arms (England, France, Scotland, and Ireland), and round the waist of the amorino is a scroll lettered “Justum est.”

This picture was acquired by the fifth Duke of Portland in 1861. It was then attributed to H. Gascar, who is stated to have been in England circa 1674-80, and who might consequently have painted Sir Christopher soon after he made his design for the new Cathedral. The West Front is shown in the picture with the single Order, an early stage of the design. The architect looks very young for a man of about forty-two years of age, but in the case of painted portraits it is often difficult to reconcile the actual age of a sitter with his apparent age.

(h) The Queen’s College Bust.—This posthumous portrait has been attributed to Rysbrack; it is certainly worthy of him. Wren is shown as a very old man.

(k) The Medal at Wadham College (Plate XVI.).—As it is commonly said that this medal was struck to celebrate the completion of St. Paul’s, it is a little unkind to have to set down the fact that it was cast and chased (not struck) by G. D. Gaale, a German, about the year 1783, when he exhibited it in London, sixty years after Wren’s death in 1723.

(l) Art Union of London Medal.—A medal was issued in 1846: obverse, with bust of Wren, signed H. Wilson, Sc.; reverse, St. Paul’s, signed B. Wyon.