Austen Henry Layard (1817--1894) commissioned this marble bust of himself from the sculptor John Warrington Wood in Rome in 1881. It was remodelled from a bust sculpted by Wood in London in 1869, which was exhibited the following year at the Royal Academy. Layard was not pleased with the original bust so had this version made 12 years later. It is chiselled 'AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD' across the front.Layard's archaeological excavations in Assyria made his name while he was still only in his early thirties. Most of his massive finds from Nimrud and Nineveh now form the greater part of the British Museum's collection of Assyrian antiquities.He entered Parliament and held Cabinet office; served as ambassador in Madrid and Constantinople; became a Trustee of the National Gallery; and built up a large collection of paintings, mainly of works by Italian artists, most of which he bequeathed to the National Gallery.