Samuel Pepys - Guildhall Yard, Gresham Street, London, UK
N 51° 30.935 W 000° 05.507
30U E 701778 N 5711172
This is one of four busts of historical people situated at the front of the Guildhall Art Gallery. This bust, of Samuel Pepys, is located in the nice second from the left when facing the gallery.
Waymark Code: WMTBXQ
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/30/2016
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The bust, of Samuel Pepys, is carved from Portland stone and is about 150% life-size. Great care has been taken with the carving and the resemblance between the bust and drawings of Pepys, made at the time of his life, leaves no doubt as to who it is. The bust shows Pepys with his familiar wig and he is looking slightly to his left.
The sculptor was Tim Crawley and he has this to say about the bust on his website:
The new Guildhall Art Gallery houses the substantial collection of paintings owned by the City of London. The Portland stone building was designed with an open loggia opening onto Guildhall Yard with four shallow niches on the rear wall. New portrait busts were commissioned commemorating individuals particularly associated with the history of the City: Cromwell, Wren, Shakespeare and Pepys. The project involved researching the appearance of each figure as the basis for designing new busts, which were produced at one and a half times life size, a scale demanded by the architectural location.
The Spartacus website tells us:
Samuel Pepys, the son of a tailor, John Pepys, was born in London in 1633. After being educated at St. Paul's School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he found work as secretary to Sir Edward Montagu.
On the Restoration Montagu was given command of the royal fleet. With the help of Montagu, Pepys was appointed Clerk of the King's Ships. This was followed by Pepys becoming Survey-General of the Victualling Service (1665) and Secretary of the Admiralty (1672).
In 1678 Titus Oates announced that he had discovered a Catholic plot to kill Charles II. Oates claimed that Charles was to be replaced by his Roman Catholic brother, James. He went on to argue that after James came to the throne Protestants would be massacred in their thousands. The government believed the story and eighty people were arrested and accused of taking part in the plot. This included Pepys who was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Several people were executed, including Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh, before it was revealed that Titus Oates had been lying.
Pepys was released and in 1683 and the following year was reinstated as Secretary to the Admiralty. However, he was forced to resign after James II was ousted from power and replaced by the joint monarchs, William III and Mary II. Pepys was imprisoned by the new government and was not released until 1700. Samuel Pepys died in 1703.
Pepys, like his friend, John Evelyn, kept a diary and on his death was left to the library at Magdalene College. The diary was in code and was not deciphered and published until 1825. The diaries cover the period from January 1660 to May 1669.