John Henning (2 May 1771 – 8 April 1851) was a Scottish sculptor who began his career as a carpenter. His masterpieces were the one-twentieth-scale models he created of the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...
and
Bassae
Bassae (, – ''Bassai'', meaning "little vale in the rocks"Henning, John (1771–1851) at ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004. (Registration needed for online edn.) Accessed 10 June 2010 These took him twelve years to complete.John Henning’s miniature casts of the Parthenon frieze at the British Museum, retrieved June 2010 Many others then copied this idea but he could not copyright the work of a long-dead artist, and could do nothing to prevent this.
Biography
Henning was born in Paisley the son of Samuel Henning a carpenter and builder. He trained in wood-carving under his father.
He was noted for his ability as a sculptor when he created cameos of his friends and family. After marrying Catherine Sunter when aged 28 and encouraged by his early cameos he went into business in Glasgow and then Edinburgh attracting clients that included
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
. Josiah Wedgwood was impressed by his work and agreed to champion them for Henning.Wall, John ''That Most Ingenious Modeller: The Life and Work of John Henning, Sculptor'', Melrose Books, Ely, U.K. 2008. In 1810 he is listed as a "portrait modeller" living at 48 Rose Street in the First New Town in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
just north of
Princes Street
Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...
.
In 1811, John and Catherine moved to London where Henning saw the newly arrived
Elgin Marbles
The Elgin Marbles ( ) are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece in the early 19th century and shipped to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7 ...
in
Burlington House
Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private English Baroque and then Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earl of Burlington, Earls of Burlington. It was significantly expanded in the mid-19th cent ...
and persuaded
Lord Elgin
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine, ( ; 20 July 176614 November 1841), often known as Lord Elgin, was a Scottish nobleman, diplomat, and collector, known primarily for the controversial procurement of marble sculptures ...
to allow him to draw and copy them. It was said that a commission from
Princess Charlotte Princess Charlotte may refer to:
People
* Charlotte of the United Kingdom (disambiguation), various princesses
** Princess Charlotte of Wales (born 2015), granddaughter of King Charles III and only daughter of William, Prince of Wales
* Charlott ...
of a portrait medallion inspired Henning to realise that he could use his drawings to create slate moulds that could be used to reproduce the friezes in miniature. Henning also took advantage of his sittings with the Princess to introduce her to more radical reading. This task was to last twelve years although Henning decided to also add the Bassae frieze to his work, and this did not arrive in England until a few years into his work. One miniature version of the Parthenon frieze was just two inches high, but over twenty four feet long.
By 1820, Henning was ready to sell his work and it was obvious that he had not copied the remains of the friezes, but recreated them. In the case of the Parthenon frieze he had used drawings taken by
William Pars
William Pars (28 February 1742 – 1782) was an English watercolour portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and illustrator.
Life and works
Pars was born in London, the son of a Engraving, metal engraver. He studied at "Shipley's Dra ...
in 1765, the drawings commissioned from Feodor Ivanowitsch by Lord Elgin before they were moved to England and importantly drawings made by
Jacques Carrey
Jacques Carrey (12 January 1649 – 18 February 1726) was a French painter and draughtsman, now remembered almost exclusively for the series of drawings he made of the Parthenon, Athens, in 1674.
Born in Troyes, Carrey was a pupil in the atelier ...
. The last drawings were not the most detailed, but importantly they were made thirteen years before the explosion that had damaged the Parthenon in 1687.
One copy of the miniature Parthenon frieze was sold to
William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...
for £42 in 1821 but its location is not known. He failed to gain a copyright on this work and others profited by making copies. Very few original copies of these miniatures are known to exist.
In 1827, Henning and his son created sculptures in the style of the Parthenon frieze for a screen erected at Hyde Park Gate in London. The following year, John Jr. confirmed that he would recreate a copy of the Parthenon frieze for London's Athenaeum Club. Although only just over half the length of the 524 feet long original this model was at the correct scale and was constructed from Bath stone in agreement with
Decimus Burton
Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Reg ...
, the club's architect.
Henning also made half-scale models which he hoped to reproduce for more modest buildings. Henning found that they were very popular but the business was captured across Europe by others who had unauthorised copies of his work. Equally distressing to Henning was the low quality of some of the copies. Because of this Henning became a supporter of the emerging laws on copyright but also was unhappy that his success was going unrewarded.
In 1845, Henning again invested his time based around the friezes. This time he intended to recreate the two friezes as engravings. Trial proofs were made but unfortunately his partner in the enterprise,
Alfred Robert Freebairn
Alfred Robert Freebairn (1794–1846), was an English engraver.
Life
Freebairn was apparently the son of Robert Freebairn, the landscape painter, and is probably identical with the younger Freebairn who etched the ''Sketch-book'' of Robert Free ...
(1794–1846), died before either of the works were completed.
Henning died on 8 April 1851, two years after his wife. He was buried as a pauper in
Finchley
Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. north of Charing Cross, nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, London, Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hendon.
It is ...
Churchyard.
Legacy
Henning's original slate models were obtained by the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
in 1938. The Athenaeum Club and the screen at Hyde Park are extant. Copies of Henning's work are still being discovered.
Family
Henning's eldest son John Henning (1801-1857) was also a sculptor. He won the Society of Art's Silver Isis Medal for a relief entitled "The Good Samaritan". In 1825 he was commissioned to repair the statue of Queen Anne in front of
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
. In 1836 he created the figurative panels on the front of
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre, England. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupi ...
.
Samuel Henning (c.1802-1832) aided his father in the restoration of the Elgin Marbles. He designed the tomb of Duncan Sinclair in
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in P ...
. He died of
cholera
Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...
during the epidemic of 1832.
Another son Archibald Skirving Henning became an artist and he has a few paintings in public collections in the United Kingdom. Archibald died aged 59 in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
in 1864.Obituary The Gentleman's Magazine, 1864, retrieved 12 July 2014 He was named after the Scottish artist Archibald Skirving.