Thomas Banks (29 December 1735 – 2 February 1805) was an important 18th-century English sculptor.

Life

The son of William Banks, a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

who was land steward to the

Duke of Beaufort Duke of Beaufort (), a title in the Peerage of England, was created by Charles II in 1682 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, legitimised son of Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of S ...

, he was born in London. He was educated at

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye (Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye a ...

. Banks was taught drawing by his father, and from 1750 to 1756 was apprenticed to a woodcarver, William Barlow, in London. In his spare time he worked at sculpture, spending his evenings in the studio of the Flemish émigré sculptor

Peter Scheemakers Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influenc ...

. During this period he is known to have worked for the architect

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...

. Before 1772, when he obtained a travelling studentship given by the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

and proceeded to Rome, he had already exhibited several fine works. Returning to England in 1779 Banks found that the taste for classical poetry, long the source of his inspiration, no longer existed, and he spent two years in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, being employed by

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

, who purchased his ''Cupid Tormenting a Butterfly''. On his return to England he modelled his colossal ''

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pe ...

Mourning the Loss of

Briseis Briseis (; grc, Βρῑσηΐς ''Brīsēís'', ) ("daughter of Briseus"), also known as Hippodameia (, ), is a significant character in the ''Iliad''. Her role as a status symbol is at the heart of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon ...

'', a work full of force and passion. He was elected, in 1784, an associate of the

and in the following year became a full member. Banks died in London on 2 February 1805. He is buried in the churchyard of St Mary on Paddington Green Church. A plaque to his memory was also erected in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

Works

Among other works in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

by Banks are the monuments to Captain George Blagden Westcott and Captain Richard Rundle Burges, and in

to Sir

Eyre Coote Eyre Coote may refer to: *Eyre Coote (East India Company officer) (1726–1783), Irish soldier and Commander-in-chief of India *Eyre Coote (British Army officer) (1762–1823), Irish-born general in the British Army * Eyre Coote (MP) (1806–1834), ...

, General Loten, Sir Clifton Wintringham and

William Woollett William Woollett (15 August 173523 May 1785) was an English engraver operating in the 18th century. Life Woolett was born in Maidstone, of a family which came originally from the Netherlands. He was apprenticed to John Tinney, an engraver in ...

. His bronze bust of

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-General ...

is in the National Portrait Gallery. Thomas Banks Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry c 1789

Banks's best-known work is perhaps the colossal group of ''Shakespeare Attended by Painting and Poetry'', which since 1871 has been placed in the garden of

New Place New Place () was William Shakespeare's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died there in 1616. Though the house no longer exists, the site is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which maintains it as a specially-desig ...

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

. The high-relief sculpture was completed in 1789 for a recess in the upper façade of John Boydell's new

Shakespeare Gallery The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting. In addition to the e ...

in Pall Mall. Banks was paid 500 guineas for the group which depicts Shakespeare, reclining against a rock, between the Dramatic Muse and the Genius of Painting. Beneath it was panelled pedestal inscribed "He was a Man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again". The sculpture remained in Pall Mall until the building was demolished in 1868 or 1869, when it was moved to New Place. One of his most bizarre works is the 1801 ''Anatomical Crucifixion'', a dissected body nailed to a cross, in the Hunterian Museum in London.

Selected public works

Public works by Banks include * Isaac Watts,

(1774) *Bishop

Thomas Newton Thomas Newton (1 January 1704 – 14 February 1782) was an English cleric, biblical scholar and author. He served as the Bishop of Bristol from 1761 to 1782. Biography Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was subsequently electe ...

, St. Mary-le-Bow (1782) *

Sir Eyre Coote Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, KB (1726 – 28 April 1783) was a British soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1780. He is best known for his many years of service with the British Army in India. His victory a ...

, Westminster Abbey (1783) *

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel H ...

Chester Cathedral Chester Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral and the mother church of the Diocese of Chester. It is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly the abbey church of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Sa ...

(1787) *John Heaviside the elder, Hatfield, Hertfordshire (1787) * Bishop Edmund Law, Carlisle Cathedral (1787) *Robert Markham, St Mary's,

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

, London (1788) *

Giuseppe Baretti Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti (24 April 1719, Turin, Piedmont – 5 May 1789, London) was an Italian literary critic, poet, writer, translator, linguist and author of two influential language-translation dictionaries. During his years in Engla ...

, Marylebone Chapel (1789) * Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, Flitton, Bedfordshire (1790) *Samuel Northcote,

St Andrew's, Plymouth The Minster Church of St Andrew, also known as St Andrew's Church, Plymouth is an Anglican church in Plymouth. It is the original parish church of Sutton, one of the three towns which were later combined to form the city of Plymouth. The church i ...

(1791) *

, Westminster Abbey (1791) *

Shukburgh Ashby Shukburgh or Shuckburgh Ashby (6 October 1724 – 28 January 1792) was a British landowner and politician. Life Ashby was the eldest son of Shukburgh Ashby, Leicestershire and was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. He inherited the Quenby est ...

Hungarton Hungarton (or Hungerton) is a small village and civil parish in the Harborough district, in the county of Leicestershire, England, about north-east of Leicester and south-west of Melton Mowbray. The population of the civil parish was 269 at ...

, Leicestershire (1792) *Tomb of Penelope Boothby, Ashbourne, Derby (1791) * Joseph Hurlock FRS, Stoke Newington Parish Church (1793) *Anna Matthews,

(1793) * Joan Gideon Loten, Westminster Abbey (1793) * Sir Clifton Wintringham, Westminster Abbey (1794) *Mrs Halifax, Ewell, Surrey (1795) *Margaret Petrie,

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one ...

Parish Church (1795) * Stephen Storace, Marylebone Parish Church (1796) *Colonel

Thomas Kyd Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of '' The Spanish Tragedy'', and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. Although well known in his own time, ...

, memorial in Calcutta Botanical Gardens, India (1796) *Cornelia Millbank, Croft, Yorkshire (1796) *John Halliday, Halesowen, Worcestershire (1797) *John Clarke, Ickenham, Middlesex, (1800) *Captain Richard Burgess,

(1802) *Captain George Blagden Westcott, St Paul's Cathedral (1805) *''Caractacus Pleading Before the Emperior Claudius in Rome'', relief panel, 1774-1777,

Stowe School , motto_translation = I stand firm and I stand first , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent school, day & boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmast ...

*''Thetis and her Nymphs Coming to Console Archilles for the Death of Patroclus'', relief panel,

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London

References

Works cited * Attribution *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, Thomas 1735 births 1805 deaths 18th-century British sculptors 18th-century English male artists English male sculptors Royal Academicians Sculptors from London