ANTIQUE MARBLE SCULPTURE.

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A WHITE MARBLE FIGURE OF A CHILD PRAYING “INFANT PIETY”
BY JOSEPH GOTT (1786-1860)

English – c. 1822-1832 (Probably Rome)
Signed: J. Gott. F.T.

Provenance: Major Ferrand & Family, of Harden Grange, West Riding of Yorkshire.
The carved white marble figure of a young child, depicted with curled and ringleted hair, the smooth and rounded limbs semi-draped, kneeling on a cushion, eyes gazing upwards and hands clasped in an attitude of prayer.  The cushion also finely carved, patterned with a Vitrouvian scroll design and tasselled.
This is believed to be the sculpture referred to in Joseph Gott,1786-1860, Sculptor, theCatalogue written to accompany the 1972 Exhibitions at Temple Newsam House, Leeds, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Entry G66 mentions “Infant Piety”, quoting William Ewart Gladstone as recording in his Rome Diary on 2nd June, 1832: “After breakfast went to see Mr Gott’s studio.....A beautiful figure of “infant piety” somewhat like Sir J. Reynolds Samuel and much variety....”. However, the accompanying photograph shows the terracotta model of a well-formed young woman, obviously too old to be called an “infant”, and nothing like the Reynolds painting, so apparently an error. The present figure is more in keeping with Sir Joshua Reynolds celebrated painting “The Infant Samuel at Prayer”, of 1776, with which Gott would have been familiar. Moreover, it also bears similarities to the “Praying Samuel” carved by the Florentine, Luigi Pampaloni, in 1827 (Chelminski Gallery Catalogue The Golden Age of Sculpture, 2003).
Joseph Gott was born in Leeds in 1786, but later went to London where he was apprenticed to John Flaxman, R.A., the outstanding neo-classical sculptor in England. In 1805 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he was awarded Silver Medal in 1806 and the Gold Medal the following year. In 1808 the Society of Arts presented him with their Greater Silver Palette for his “Samson Slaying the Philistines”.  In 1819 he won a second Gold Medal at the Royal Academy for “Jacob Wrestling with the Angel”.
Around 1820, Gott became friends with the painter, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who two years later sponsored him to go to study in Rome, where he set up his studio and was to remain for the rest of his life, making occasional journeys to England to install monuments etc. Gott soon received commissions from the Marchioness of Abercorn and the Duke of Devonshire, for the latter carving “Bust of a Bacchante” and “A Greyhound with Two Puppies”. Benjamin Gott of Yorkshire, a manufacturer, was another patron, and Gott  received many commissions from the areas of Leeds and Liverpool, as well as from aristocrats such as Lord Prudhoe, Lord Cadogan and Lord Gower. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1820-1848, at the British Institution from 1821-1822, and at the Paris Exhibition of 1855.  His plaster group, “The Dying Spartacus” is in the Soane Museum in London, and the Leeds Art Gallery holds two of his busts and one statue.  Gott also carved a number of monuments. He died in Rome in 1860.

Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis.                    

British Sculpture 1740-2000 by Diane Bilby & Marjorie Trusted

Height: 26 ½” (67.50 cm)