Statue of a sleeping shepherdess in Stowe landscape gardens

Statue of a Sleeping Shepherdess in Stowe Landscape Gardens

This is an almost life-size garden statue in limestone, of unknown sculptor, mounted on a high pedestal. The statue depicts a shepherdess seated on the base of a tree stump, resting her head on her right hand with her elbow propped on the stump. She wears a long loose dress, a belt, and a bonnet. A leather water bottle rests on the tree stump behind her. The statue stands on a low rectangular base, beneath which rises a pedestal with a stepped and moulded base, moulded sunk panels to the sides, and a deep moulded cornice.

The statue dates from the early-to-mid 18th century and forms one of a pair with a matching statue of a sleeping shepherd. It was likely commissioned under the patronage of Viscount Cobham (1675-1749) at Stowe, as part of the extensive statuary assemblies gathered there in the first half of the 18th century. Historical evidence suggests the pair were originally positioned as part of a circle of Arcadian statues arranged around Queen Caroline's Monument in the Queen's Theatre, erected around 1725. Contemporary sources including Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson's "A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain" (third edition, 1742) and William Guilpin's "A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Cobham at Stow in Buckinghamshire" (written in 1748) describe pastoral figures positioned around the Queen's monument, indicating this statue and its partner were part of this arrangement.

Following the removal of the Queen's Theatre feature in the 1750s, the statues were relocated to the Grecian Valley, originally laid out by Capability Brown between 1747 and 1749 (his first known commission). There they formed part of a circle surrounding a Dancing Faun statue in a grassy glade. This arrangement remained a feature of the Grecian Valley until at least the early 19th century, when the statues were dispersed in major sales of statuary in 1848 and 1921-22. Around the mid-19th century, the shepherd and shepherdess were likely relocated to the grounds of the Cobham Arms Hotel in West Street. In 1975 both statues were installed at Castle House, where they were listed at Grade II in 1994. Following a donation to the National Trust in 2007, both statues were moved again and re-sited in the Grecian Valley at Stowe landscape gardens, part of a Grade I registered landscape.