Object Type
This portrait bust of the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) is one of several versions associated with Roubiliac, and was probably carved by an assistant in his workshop. Although its early provenance is uncertain, it may once have formed part of a series of busts of great writers and thinkers.

People
Alexander Pope was one of the great satirical poets of his day, but also moved in high society. He was on close terms with many aristocratic patrons and connoisseurs, notably the Palladian architect Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and Baron Cobham of Stowe in Buckinghamshire. Pope had suffered from chronic ill health since his youth, and Sir Joshua Reynolds remarked that Roubiliac had observed the poet's 'countenance was that of a person who had been much afflicted with headache, and that he should have known the fact from the contracted appearance of the skin beneath his eyebrows, though he had not been otherwise apprised of it'.

Materials & Making
Marble busts were among the most prestigious types of portrait undertaken in Britain during the 18th century. The marble, a relatively expensive material, was imported, usually from Italy via The Netherlands, since there are no marble quarries in this country. The skills needed to carve marble were also commonly learned abroad, where an aspiring artist would probably gain his most important training assisting an established sculptor.