Statue of a sleeping shepherd in Stowe landscape gardens

Statue of a Sleeping Shepherd in Stowe Landscape Gardens

This garden statue, carved in limestone by an unknown sculptor, dates from the early to mid-18th century. It stands on a high pedestal with a stepped and moulded base, featuring moulded sunk panels to the sides and a deep moulded cornice. The pedestal supports a low rectangular base on which an almost life-size figure of a sleeping shepherd is depicted.

The shepherd is shown seated on the base of a tree stump, his head resting on his left hand with his elbow propped against the stump. He wears knee breeches, a short coat with a belt, and a loose cap. A dog reclines at his left foot, and a barrel hangs from the stump beside him.

The statue is one of a pair; its companion is a sleeping shepherdess. Both pieces likely originated from the patronage of Viscount Cobham (1675–1749) at Stowe, and formed part of the many statuary groups assembled here during the first half of the 18th century.

Historical records suggest the shepherd and shepherdess were originally positioned in a circle of statues arranged around a Rotunda in the Western Garden. An annotation prior to 1750 in a copy of Benton Seeley's 1748 guide to the gardens, 'A Description of the Gardens of Lord Viscount Cobham, at Stowe in Buckinghamshire', identifies both figures in this location. The statues were likely part of the Arcadian statuary group surrounding Queen Caroline's monument in the Queen's Theatre, erected between approximately 1725 and the early 1740s.

Following the removal of the Queen's Theatre feature in the 1750s, the statues appear to have been relocated to form part of a group surrounding the Dancing Faun statue in a grassy glade within the Grecian Valley, originally laid out by Capability Brown between 1747 and 1749 as his first known commission. The Circle of the Dancing Faun remained a feature of the Grecian Valley until at least the early 19th century, before being included in large-scale sales of statuary in 1848 and again in 1921–22.

In the mid-19th century, the shepherd and shepherdess were probably moved to the grounds of the Cobham Arms Hotel in West Street. In 1975, both statues were installed in the grounds of Castle House, where they were listed at Grade II in 1994. Following a donation to the National Trust in 2007, the statues were relocated once more and reinstated in the Grecian Valley within Stowe landscape gardens, which forms part of a Grade I Registered landscape.