Matthew Raper

Ivory, a much prized and exotic material normally imported from Africa, became fashionable for sculpture in Britain during the18th century, having been comparatively neglected since medieval times. It was particularly used for portraits, although the full-length portrait seen here was unusual. Most ivory portraits are busts, or more commonly reliefs, like this one. As well as likenesses of contemporaries, historical figures were often portrayed in this material, and series of such ivory portraits seem sometimes to have been made for collectors.

David Le Marchand (1674-1726) was famed for his ivory carvings, particularly his portraits. He was a native of Dieppe, France, and came from a Huguenot, or Protestant, family. With the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the consequent persecution of non-Catholics, he had to flee France. He was next recorded in Edinburgh in 1696, where he is documented as receiving official permission to open a shop and take on apprentices. He was in London by 1700, when he started to achieve a reputation for his portraits. Despite his wide circle of important patrons and his evident success, Le Marchand apparently died in poverty, though the exact reasons for this are unknown.

He is recognised as the most distinguished ivory carver to have worked in England in the early 18th century, a period when the art enjoyed a popularity unknown since the Middle Ages.