Artist of the month: Sir Richard Westmacott RA (1775-1856)
Sir Richard Westmacott, RA, Jupiter and Ganymede, 1811. Marble © Royal Academy of Arts
Westmacott’s Diploma piece, which he presented to the Royal Academy after his election as a Member in 1811, represents a classical myth. The god Jupiter, having fallen in love with the beautiful boy Ganymede, transformed himself into an eagle and carried the boy off to Olympus.
Westmacott was inspired not only by a myth from Ancient Greece but also by a particular Antique statue. The Vatican Museum in Rome owns a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture depicting this subject, which is attributed to Leochares (c.350-320 BC) and was known to artists in the 18th century. It is similar to Westmacott’s work in that the eagles’ wings are shown outstretched behind Ganymede and the bird gently holds the boy in its talons in preparation to lifting him from the ground.
James Thomson after J. Derby, Portrait of Sir Richard Westmacott, RA, 1823. Stipple engraving © Royal Academy of Arts
Westmacott was an immensely successful sculptor receiving many public and private commissions. He studied from the age of 14 with his grandfather, Thomas Vardy, a furniture carver. He then continued his education not at the Royal Academy Schools but by travelling to Rome in 1792 and studying antique sculpture for four years. He became well acquainted with the neo-classical sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) whilst there and also was employed by the architect Henry Holland (1745-1806) to purchase antiquities for him.
On his return to London he exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1797 and soon became established as one of the leading sculptors of his age, receiving many commissions for civic and national monuments such as the Monument to Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby (1803-9, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London) and the Waterloo Vase (1820-27, Royal Collection). The latter was an unusual war memorial, commissioned by George IV, it was an enormous vase carved from a block of carrara marble over 18 feet high. Westmacott also worked in bronze and his public sculptures in this medium include a statue to Lord Nelson in Birmingham (1806-9) and the giant statue of Achilles (1814-22) in Hyde Park which is a memorial to the Duke of Wellington.
George Johan Scharf, Westmacott lecturing at Somerset House in 1830, 1850. Chalk style lithotint
Following the death of John Flaxman the Academy elected Westmacott to serve as its second Professor of Sculpture in 1827. He retained this post until his death in 1856, and duly delivered lectures every year to the students of the Royal Academy and fellow Academicians.
The lectures were not published but seem mostly to have been a chronological survey of sculpture, with an emphasis on the Greek and Roman period. This print shows Westmacott lecturing in 1830 surrounded by casts after the Antique, including one of the Elgin marbles and the Venus de Medici. A fine collection of copies after Old Masters from the Royal Academy’s collection are shown hanging above the seated students. On the right is a copy of Leonardo’s Last Supper and to its left three copies of the Raphael Cartoons by Sir James Thornhill.
Unidentified engraver after Sir Richard Westmacott, The Houseless Traveller, ca. 1834. Stipple engraving © Royal Academy of Arts
Westmacott undertook many marble tomb memorials. In some cases the main figures from the tombs were exhibited as models in the Royal Academy exhibitions. One of his most popular groups was shown in 1822, with the title The Houseless Traveller which depicted a destitute young mother and her child. The group were the main feature of a monument to Mrs. Elizabeth Southwell Warren (1824, Westminster Abbey), the wife of the bishop of Bangor, and a benefactor of itinerant workers, particularly favouring widows and orphans.
