Sir James Brooke

Inscriptionback to top

Incised on the base (right side): T. Woolner. S^c. I London. and (centre): Rajah Brooke/1858

This portraitback to top

This is a replica of the marble bust of 1858 commissioned by Sir Thomas Fairbairn, exhibited RA, 1859 (1317), and now in the collection of his descendant, J. Brooke Fairbairn. It is not known who commissioned the NPG bust, nor how it entered the collection of the donor. Although both busts are dated 1858, it is clear that the Fairbairn bust, which must be the original, was not finished till 1859 (see below); the inscribed date presumably refers to the year in which Brooke sat. On 2 May 1858, Woolner wrote to Mrs Tennyson (Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner: his Life in Letters (1917), p 148): 'I have been half expecting to do a bust of Sir James Brooke; T. Fairbairn says if he can be induced to sit to me he will have it done in marble'. During the summer Woolner did execute a bust of Brooke, but in plaster, not marble, for he wrote to Mrs Tennyson on 22 October 1858 (Amy Woolner, p 160): 'A gentleman called who said he thought of having a marble of the Rajah ... Mrs and Mr Maurice called to see his bust, and my man at the studio had not the sense to put it in a proper light and position to show them'. It was quite common for sculptors to execute a plaster bust in the hope of attracting a marble commission. It was clear that Brooke could not be persuaded to commission a marble of himself, and it was left to his friend to do so. On 27 March 1859, Woolner wrote yet again to Mrs Tennyson (Amy Woolner, p 168): 'I am working fearfully hard to try and get my Rajah done for the R.A. Ex. I do not yet know if Fairbairn will like it sent there.' That same year Woolner sent a bronze medallion of Fairbairn to the RA (1244), as well as the marble bust of the Rajah.

Provenanceback to top

Mrs Toten Knox, bequeathed by her, 1906.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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