Johann Christian Lotsch

Mary Caroline Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland (1848-1912), Carbisdale Castle, Scottish Highlands, circa 1906;
Colonel Theodore Salvesen (1863-1942), Carbisdale Castle, Scottish Highlands, 1933;
by family descent to Captain Harold Keith Salvesen (1897-1970), Carbisdale Castle, Scottish Highlands, 1942;
gifted to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association, 1945

Overall the condition of the marble is good with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. There is veining to the marble throughout consistent with the material, particularly at the lower back and the buttocks. There is some orange discolouration to the veining at the proper left thigh and the drapery over the tree stump. There are small naturally occurring inclusions to the marble, notably to the upper back. There is a slightly open vein running through the top of the proper right wing. A section of the base at the back is carved separately and detaches. Part of Cupid's arrow is lost, and old glue residues are visible. There is dirt to the surface, particularly to the crevices. There are some small chips to the edges of the separately carved marble base. There are two metal mount holes for revolving handles at the front.; There is also a hole at the back. The revolving mechanism for the wood base is still in place. There is minor stable splitting to the base consistent with age, and a few small losses to the mouldings.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This Cupid in repose is a new addition to the highly refined oeuvre of fifteen marbles by Johann Christian Lotsch described by Von Scheider in 1961. Cupid is shown seated, his head in his hand, with his bow and quiver cast down. Significantly, the quiver is empty, suggesting that love is languishing for the moment.

Lotsch led several double lives as an artist. He trained as a painter and a sculptor before moving from Karlsruhe to Rome in 1818. There he made sought-after works on paper which satirised life in the Eternal City by grotesquely caricaturing its inhabitants and, at the same time, created some of the most refined and lucidly composed Romantic marble carvings of the first half of the 19^th century. In sculpture alone his influences were opposing too: on the one hand he was a dedicated student of Berthel Thorvaldsen, the great Danish Neoclassical sculptor, and on the other a prominent member of the Nazarene movement, which spoke out against classicism and sought to revive honesty and spirituality in art. Lotsch's multiple affiliations did not affect his popularity among fellow artists and patrons. If anything they enabled him to become an infamous catalyst in the social life of the German colony of artists in Rome. The artist's eccentricity and love for the bottle are immortalised in several drawings by him and his colleagues, including a sadly destroyed self-portrait which shows the artist with an enormous wine jug and Hieronymus Hess’ 1823 allegorical watercolour which features Lotsch and his friends making merry in fancy dress around a table (see Peters, op.cit., pp. 178 and 423)

RELATED LITERATURE
A. von Schneider, ‘Johann Christian Lotsch (1790-1873). Ein badischer Bildhauer und Zeichner des Klassizismus’, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, 109, 1961, pp. 323-340; U. Peters (eds.), Künstlerleben in Rom. Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). Der dänische Bildhauer und seine deutschen Freunde, exh. cat. Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg and Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Nuremberg, 1991

Carbisdale Castle: A History

Carbisdale Castle is a magnificent Scots Baronial residence situated in the heart of the Highlands, overlooking the beautiful Kyle of Sutherland. Constructed between 1906 and 1917, it was the last Castle to be built in Scotland. Its history is one of intrigue, scandal, war and peace, at the centre of which lies the formidable figure of its first resident, Mary Caroline, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland (1848-1912), the Duchess Blair. Married three times, her first husband, Captain Arthur Kindersley Blair of the 71^st Highland Light Infantry Regiment, died mysteriously in a hunting accident in 1883. In the months leading up to her husband’s death, Mary Caroline had embarked on a love affair with the 3^rd Duke of Sutherland. Rumour swirled around the untimely death and, according to one writer ‘the Duke was whispered to have been responsible’. When his first wife died in 1889 there was no bar to the Duke wedding his long term mistress. The two caused a major scandal by marrying only four months after the Duchess’ passing. Mary Caroline was branded the  ‘Duchess Blair’ by the Victorian public, the implication being that she was a social climber.

The tale of the Duchess Blair took a further twist with the death of the Duke, since his will left her the majority of the Sutherland inheritance. His natural heirs were incensed, contesting this legacy. During the course of legal proceedings it emerged that the Dowager had destroyed documents, and she was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment. An agreement was eventually reached providing the Dowager with a substantial financial settlement, including the stipulation that the family construct a residence befitting her station. The result, Carbisdale Castle, was built to her exacting standards, and, over a period of time, was gradually furnished with the magnificent collection of statuary and painting being offered in this sale. The Dowager nevertheless remained embittered by her lost inheritance and she constructed the Castle around a tower with clocks on only three sides. The wall without a clock faced Sutherland lands, illustrating the Duchess’ claim that she would not give the family the time of day.

The Castle and its collection were generously donated to its current custodians, the Scottish Youth Hostels Association (SYHA), by Captain Harold Salvesen in 1945, who had inherited it from his father, Colonel Theodore Salvesen. Scots of Norwegian descent, during the Second World War the family gave refuge to King Haakon VII of Norway at Carbisdale. It was here, in 1941, that the Norwegian King signed an agreement with the Soviet Union that Russian troops would vacate Norway after they had liberated the country from Nazi forces. From 1945 to 2010 this historic Castle, complete with a tumultuous history and said to be haunted, operated as a popular youth hostel, under the care of SYHA.

The Collection comprises an extraordinary narrative sweep which charts the development of European sculpture in the 19^th century, from the elegant Neoclassicism of the early part of the century – exemplified by works such as the Venus Italica after Antonio Canova – to the fantastical Romanticism of the Belle Époque years – seen in marbles such as Pasquale Romanelli’s Andromeda and the Sea Monster. Appropriately, two of the most beautiful sculptures are the Venus by Lawrence Macdonald and the Nymph at the Stream by David Watson Stevenson, two leading Scottish sculptors. Wider British sculpture is represented by Henry Weekes’ The Young Naturalist with its girl with billowing hair and its rocky base with intricately carved seaweeds. Carbisdale is the quintessential Victorian collection, a point underlined by the presence of two charming satyr’s by Emil Wolff, one of Queen Victoria’s favourite artists. The wonderful array of pictures, most of which are quality 19^th-century copies of Old Masters or original British landscapes, hints at the Duchess Blair’s desire to recreate the splendour that she had lost with the death of her husband, whose own Bridgewater Collection, was one of the greatest in Europe.