Sir Richard Westmacott RA (15 July 1775  1 September 1856) was a British sculptor.[1]

Quick Facts SirRA, Born ...
Sir
Richard Westmacott
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Born(1775-07-15)15 July 1775
London, England
Died1 September 1856(1856-09-01) (aged 81)
London, England
Resting placeChastleton, Oxfordshire
NationalityBritish
Known forsculpture
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Life and career

Westmacott studied with his father, also named Richard Westmacott, at his studio in Mount Street, off Grosvenor Square in London before going to Rome in 1793 to study under Antonio Canova.[2] Westmacott devoted all his energies to the study of classical sculpture, and throughout his life his real sympathies were with pagan rather than with Christian art. Within a year of his arrival in Rome he won the first prize for sculpture offered by the Florentine Academy of Arts, and in the following year he gained the papal gold medal awarded by the Academy of St Luke with his bas-relief of Joseph and his brothers.[3] On returning to England in 1797, he set up a studio, where John Edward Carew and Musgrave Watson gained experience.

Westmacott had his own foundry at Pimlico, in London, where he cast both his own works, and those of other sculptors, including John Flaxman's statue of Sir John Moore for Glasgow. Late in life he was asked by the Office of Works for advice on the casting of the relief panels for Nelson's Column.[4] He also had an arrangement with the Trustees of the British Museum, which allowed him to make moulds and supply plaster casts of classical sculpture in the museum's collection to country house owners, academies and other institutions.[4]

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Statue of Achilles (1822) on the Wellington Monument at Hyde Park Corner, London.

Westmacott exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1797 and 1839. His name is given in the catalogues as "R. Westmacott, Junr." until 1807, when the "Junr." was dropped.[5] He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1805, and a full academician in 1811.[2] His academy diploma piece, a marble relief of Jupiter and Ganymede, remains in the academy's collection.[6] He was professor of sculpture at the academy from 1827 until his death.[2] He received his knighthood on 19 July 1837.[7][8] In 1852 when contacted by the Corporation of London about a possible sculpture commission, Westmacott replied that he had not been active as a sculptor for some years.[9]

Works

Among Westmacott's works include: the reliefs for the north side of Marble Arch; the Greek revival pedimental sculptures of figures representing The Progress of Civilisation on the British Museum;[10][11] the Achilles of the Wellington Monument, London; and the Waterloo Vase, now in Buckingham Palace Gardens.

The Waterloo Vase was sculpted from a single piece of Carrara marble, earmarked by Napoleon to represent his military victories. Following the French defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, the vase was presented unfinished to George IV in 1815 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. George IV later commissioned Westmacott to complete the piece.[12][13][14]

His statue of Horatio Nelson, Birmingham was the first statue of Nelson unveiled in Britain. There are other monuments to Nelson by Westmacott at the Bull Ring, Birmingham, in Barbados,[citation needed] while that at Liverpool was modelled and cast by Westmacott, to a design by Matthew Cotes Wyatt.[4][15] In Liverpool there is also an equestrian statue of King George III sculpted by Westmacott, which was unveiled in 1822.[16] He was responsible for the statue of the agriculturalist and developer Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford in Russell Square, and the one of the Duke of York on top of the column in Waterloo place.[2] His Achilles in Hyde Park, a bronze copy of an antique sculpture from Monte Cavallo in Rome, is a tribute to the Duke of Wellington, paid for by £10,000 raised by female subscribers.[17][10]

Westmacott's sculptures of poetical subjects were in a style similar to those of the contemporary Italian school: his works of this type included Psyche and Cupid for the Duke of Bedford; Euphrosyne for the Duke of Newcastle; A Nymph Unclasping her Zone; The Distressed Mother and The Houseless Traveller.[2]

Westmacott also sculpted the memorials to William Pitt the Younger, Spencer Perceval, Charles James Fox and Joseph Addison in Westminster Abbey; the statue of Fox in Bloomsbury Square; and those to Sir Ralph Abercromby, Lord Collingwood and Generals Pakenham and Gibbs in St Paul's Cathedral.[2] The Abercromby monument is considered by some critics as the most original composition of Westmacott's entire career.[18] The idea to create a memorial to a British military hero by showing his death in action was a bold departure from the more common use of allegorical figures and personifications of virtue.[18] The memorial, a free-standing marble group on an oval base, showed Abercromby falling dead from his charging horse into the arms of soldier and established Westmacott's reputation for originality.[18] His memorial to Pitt in Westminster Abbey, commissioned in 1807, shows a male figure representing anarchy writhing in chains at Pitt's feet, a reference to Pitt's suppression of revolutionaries by press censorship and other means.[9]

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Blue plaque at 14 South Audley Street, London

Westmacott's other church monuments include those to Lt. General Christopher Jeaffreson (died 1824) in St.Mary's Church in Dullingham;[19] to Commander Charles Cotton (died 1828) at St. Mary's Church in Madingley;[20] to William Pemberton (died 1828) at St Margaret's Church in Newton, South Cambridgeshire;[21] to Sir George Warren (died 1801) at St. Mary's Church, Stockport in Greater Manchester, depicting a standing female figure by an urn on a pillar;[22] to Rev. Charles Prescott (died 1820), in St. Mary's Church, Stockport, showing a seated effigy[22] and to Mary Henson (died 1805) in Bainton parish church, showing a seated figure against an urn. A bust of David Garrick by Westmacott is in Lichfield Cathedral.[23]

He created a sculptural group for the marble arch of the Cumberland Gate to Hyde Park.[24]

Personal life

Westmacott lived and died at 14 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London where he is commemorated by a blue plaque.[25] Two of his brothers, George, who was active between 1799 and 1827, and Henry, (1784–1861) were also sculptors.[10] In 1798 Westmacott married Dorothy Margaret Wilkinson.[3] Their son, also called Richard Westmacott, followed closely in his footsteps also becoming a notable sculptor, a Royal Academician and professor of sculpture at the academy.

Westmacott is buried in a tomb at St Mary's Church, Chastleton in Oxfordshire, where his third son Horatio was rector in 1878.

Selected public works

1800–1809

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Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
Thumb Bishop John Warren Westminster Abbey, London After 1800 Sculpture groupWhite and grey marble [26]
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General Ralph Abercromby St Paul's Cathedral, London 1802-1805 Equestrian sculpture group on pedestal & plinth with flanking sphinx figuresWhite marble [27][18]
Thumb Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London After 1804 Statue on pedestalMarble [28]
Thumb Memorial to John Cooke Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London After 1805 Sculpture on shallow pedestalMarble3m tall [29][30]
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John Locke University College London 1808 StatueMarble
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William Pitt the Younger Westminster Abbey, London c. 1808 Statue groupMarble Q113700278 [31][32]
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Statue of Horatio Nelson The Bull Ring, Birmingham, West Midlands 1809 Sculpture group on pedestalBronze and stoneStatue 170 cm high, pedestal 370 cm high Grade II*Q7604486 [23][33][34]
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Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford Russell Square, London 1809 Statue group on cylindrical pedestalBronze and granite Grade IIQ27082115 [23][35]
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Joseph Addison Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, London 1809 Statue on pedestalMarble [36]
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1810–1819

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Thumb Sir Isaac Brock St Paul's Cathedral, London c. 1813 Sculpture groupMarble [37]
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Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood St Paul's Cathedral, London 1813 Sculpture group on plinthMarble [38]
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Statue of Robert Milligan West India Docks, London 1813 Statue on pedestal with plaquesBronze and stone Q96183031 Removed 2020
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Monument to Horatio Nelson Exchange Flags, Liverpool 1813 Statue group on pedestal with plaquesStone, bronze and granite Grade II*Q4343277 Designer, Matthew Cotes Wyatt[23][39]
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Statue of Horatio Nelson Bridgetown, Barbados 1813 Statue on pedestalBronze and stone Q107548492 Relocated to Barbados Museum in 2020[40]
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Statue of Charles James Fox Bloomsbury Square, London 1814, erected 1816 Statue on cuboid pedestalBronze and granite5.2m tall Grade II*Q17542668 [23][41][42]
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Memorial to Elizabeth Stanhope Newton Chapel, Bristol Cathedral After 1816 Relief & plaqueMarble [43]
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William Pitt the Younger Pembroke College, Cambridge 1819 Seated statue on pedestalStone Q26379565 [44]
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1820–1829

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Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
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Charles James Fox Westminster Abbey, London 1822 Sculpture groupMarble [45]
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Spencer Perceval Westminster Abbey, London 1822 Statue group & reliefMarble [46][47]
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Wellington Monument, London Hyde Park Corner, London 1822 Statue on pedestalBronze and granite Grade IQ13528921 [23][48][10]
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George III Monument Place, Liverpool 1822 Equestrian statue on pedestalBronze and stone Grade IIQ26629818 [23][49]
Thumb Memorial to John Egerton, 7th Earl of Bridgewater and Charlotte Egerton, Countess of Bridgewater Church of St Peter and St Paul, Little Gaddesden After 1823 Plaque with reliefStone [50]
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Generals Edward Pakenham & Samuel Gibbs St Paul's Cathedral, London 1824 Twin statues on pedestalMarble [51]
Thumb Memorial to Caroline, Countress Brownlow Church of St Peter and St Paul, Belton, South Kesteven 1824 ReliefMarble Grade I [52][53]
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The Distressed Mother, memorial to Elizabeth Warren Westminster Abbey, London c. 1825 Statue on pedestalMarble [26]
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England with Scotland and Ireland and Peace with Trophies of War North face of Marble Arch, London 1828 Two reliefsMarble150 cm square Grade IQ845529 [54][55]
Thumb Francis Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater Church of St Peter and St Paul, Little Gaddesden 1829 Sculpture group in reliefStone
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1830–1839

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Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
Warren Hastings Victoria Memorial, Kolkata 1830 StatueMarble [56]
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Waterloo Vase Buckingham Palace Garden, London 1830 Vase with reliefsCarrara marble5.5m x 3.0m Grade IQ7974302 [57]
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Tomb of Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier Westminster Abbey, London 1830 Tomb effigyMarble Second version at the Château de Randan, France[58][59]
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Statue of George III Windsor Great Park 1831 Equestrian statue on pedestalBronze and stone Grade IQ7727584 [23][60]
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Statue of George Canning Parliament Square, London 1832 Statue on pedestalBronze and granite7.9m tall Grade IIQ21546419 [23][41][61]
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Duke of York Duke of York Column, London 1833 Statue on pedestal and columnBronze and stone4.2m statue, 3m pedestal, 34m column Grade IQ2911131 Architect, Benjamin Dean Wyatt[23][41][62]
Thumb Dr. John Alderson Hull Royal Infirmary 1833 Statue on pedestalMarble and stone Grade IIQ26568781 [23][63]
Dorothy Margaret Westmacott St Nicholas' Church, Brighton 1834 Funerary bust
Thumb Joseph Drury St Mary's Church, Harrow on the Hill, London 1835 Relief plaqueMarble Grade I [64][65]
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1840 and later

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Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
Thumb Lord William Bentinck Victoria Memorial, Kolkata 1841 Statue on pedestalBronze & stone [56]
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The Progress of Civilisation British Museum, London 1847 Pediment sculpturesStone Grade I [66][67][68]
Thumb Mary, Queen of Scots Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire Statue on pedestalMarble and stone Relocated from Chatsworth House[23]
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Other works

References

Sources

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