LONDON.- On its discovery in Rome in the early sixteenth century, the ancient marble of Laocoön and his sons instantly established itself as the pinnacle of sculptural achievement. Causing a sensation, the sculpture was immediately recognised as the statue described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History as being “of all paintings and sculpture, the most worthy of admiration.” It exerted a profound influence on the Renaissance — not least on Michelangelo who, in attendance for its unearthing, considered it “a singular miracle of art.” Arguably the most revered classical statue to have survived from antiquity, it has captivated artists and connoisseurs alike ever since, to become one of the most famous and truly iconic sculptures in art history.

Life-size versions of the Laocoön are fantastically rare, given the scale and technical complexity of the composition. Now, on 1 July in London, Sotheby’s will offer one of only four known full-scale versions in bronze cast up until the time it was made in Paris in 1817, created by a leading master of Neoclassicism who had direct access to the original sculpture. Having belonged to some of the most celebrated British collectors of the nineteenth century, the Hamilton Laocoön is appearing on the art market for the first time in nearly 150 years. This magnificent bronze sculpture — exceptional for its quality and storied provenance — will be presented in a single-lot sale with an estimate of £2–3 million, preceding Sotheby’s Old Masters evening auction.

The importance of the Hamilton Laocoön — the only life-size Neoclassical bronze version of the model — was recognised almost immediately when it was sold in 1821 and again in 1823, achieving a record auction price on each occasion and generating newspaper headlines as aristocratic bidders vied against each other to acquire a masterpiece. An artistic and technical tour de force, the bronze cast was made by Auguste-Jean Marie Carbonneaux, 1789–1843, a contemporary of Antonio Canova. It stands as a faithful replica of the antique and an original artwork in its own right from the age of Neoclassicism.





The bronze was originally commissioned by George Watson Taylor, 1771–1841, through the French-born British art dealer and agent Alexis Delahante, 1767–1837, at the astronomical sum of £2,000.

Not long after it was made, Carbonneaux’s Laocoön was offered for sale by Harry Phillips auctioneer at 73 New Bond Street, on 11 July 1821, where it was acquired by William Beckford, 1760–1844, one of the greatest collectors of his generation, famed for building the colossal Fonthill Abbey which housed an unparalleled collection of precious objects. The sculpture then appeared in the 1823 sale of Fonthill Abbey, conducted by Phillips, where it was described as “one of the finest specimens of bronze existing” and bought by Richard Temple Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 1776–1839, who prominently installed it in the North Hall at Stowe.

After the Duke’s death in 1839, the contents of Stowe were subsequently sold in one of the most renowned auctions of the nineteenth century, on 17 August 1848. Described in the auction catalogue as “one of the most important bronzes in this country” — a sentiment echoed by the Illustrated London News, which characterised it as “one of the finest bronzes in the kingdom” — the Laocoön was purchased for the Duke of Hamilton for the sum of 540 guineas.

The bronze thus entered into one of the greatest collections ever amassed in Britain: the collection of the Dukes of Hamilton at Hamilton Palace — the vast Neoclassical country house considered to be one of the largest non-royal residences in the British Isles. The 10th Duke may have been drawn to the Laocoön for its monumental size but also because of the Fonthill provenance, since he had married William Beckford’s daughter, who had inherited the remaining portion of her father’s collection.

There it remained until the sale of the contents of Hamilton Palace in 1882 which was, like the Stowe sale, one of the defining auctions of the nineteenth century. Achieving the then enormous sum of £503, the Laocoön was bought by art dealer William Wareham, from whom Thomas Merthyr Guest, 1838–1904, acquired Carbonneaux’s bronze for his estate in Dorset. It has since passed by descent through the family of the Welsh ironmaster and early industrialist.

“... a singular miracle of art, in which we should grasp the divine genius of the sculptor…”
— Michelangelo, as recorded by Jacques Boissard

The ancient marble group known as the Laocoön was discovered on 14 January 1506 near the site of Nero’s Golden House in Rome. The sculpture was brought to the attention of Pope Julius II, who dispatched Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo to inspect the find. Within months it entered the papal collections and was installed in the Belvedere Courtyard of the Vatican, where it remains today.

The group depicts the Trojan priest Laocoön who, according to Virgil’s Aeneid, is punished by the gods for having warned his fellow Trojans of the impending disaster concealed in the wooden horse given to them by the Greeks; Athena sent sea serpents to kill him and his two sons as they prayed to Poseidon by the seashore. The composition captures in extraordinarily powerful detail their agonising suffocation.

Unsurprisingly given the Laocoön’s fame, there were early attempts to create copies or imitations, and it was reproduced in various forms almost from the moment it was pulled out of the ground, most quickly and easily through etchings, drawings and prints. The eighteenth century saw it removed from the Papal collection for the first time since its discovery nearly 200 years earlier. In 1797, the marble was ceded by Pope Pius VI to the French under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino and was moved to Paris where it remained until 1816, when it was returned to the Vatican.

It is at this point, when in the Musée Napoleon, that a plaster mould must have been made from the original marble and from which in turn Carbonneaux cast his monumental bronze, using the cutting-edge sand casting technique he is recorded as having pioneered. Until the late eighteenth century, bronzes were made using the lost wax technique, a fragile and laborious method. Sand casting permitted founders to create larger, more complicated groups and to reuse moulds.

Casting a bronze the size of the Laocoön would have taken several years to complete, suggesting that the commission was made before it left Paris in 1815 and cast from the original ancient model, a process in which Carbonneaux would have been familiar. From a family of metalworkers who ran a workshop under the Ancien Régime on the rue des Amandiers-Popincourt, in the heart of the founders’ district, Carbonneaux appears to have been active from the start of the nineteenth century and is primarily known for his prestigious commission to execute the equestrian statue of Louis XIV for the Place des Victoires.

The Laocoön appears to have been a catalyst for Carbonneaux’s career progression, since, according to the 1823 Fonthill sale catalogue, it led to his being awarded the “Gold medal of the Institute,” presumably the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France, founded 1816.

The Laocoön has been a source of inspiration to generations of artists over the centuries. In the 1820s, William Blake made line engravings inspired by the model; in the twentieth century, Alberto Giacometti made drawings of the group using ballpoint pen, and American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein modernised the ancient icon by turning it into a cartoon-like image. The composition continues to be a potent symbol.

The Hamilton Laocoön will go on view to the public in Sotheby’s London galleries from 27 June to 1 July.