Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/362

Westmacott same year ‘Maternal Affection,’ a bas-relief; in 1821 ‘Resignation;’ in 1822 the ‘Houseless Traveller,’ also known as the ‘Distressed Mother,’ the property of Lord Lansdowne (a repetition of a group originally designed for the monument to Mrs. Warren, wife of the bishop of Bangor, in Westminster Abbey; the companion group, ‘The Happy Mother,’ was less successful); in 1822 ‘Psyche,’ and in 1823 ‘Cupid,’ executed for the Duke of Bedford, now at Woburn; in 1823 ‘Horace's Dream;’ in 1824 a ‘Nymph;’ in 1825 ‘Afflicted Peasants’ and ‘Madonna and Child;’ in 1826 a statue of Lord Erskine, afterwards placed in the old hall, Lincoln's Inn; in 1827 ‘Cupid made Prisoner;’ in 1828 and 1829 portions of the monument to Warren Hastings for Calcutta Cathedral; in 1830 a statue of the Duc de Montpensier for Westminster Abbey; in 1832 ‘The Gipsy;’ in 1834 a statue of Locke for University College, London; in 1835 ‘Devotion;’ in 1837 ‘Euphrosyne’ for the Duke of Newcastle; in 1839 ‘The Abolition of Suttee’ for the pedestal of a statue of Lord William Bentinck, and in the same year a statue of Lady Susan Murray.

Of his works which were not exhibited at the Royal Academy the most important were the colossal bronze statue of Achilles in Hyde Park, copied from the original on Monte Cavallo at Rome, which was erected by the ladies of England in compliment to the Duke of Wellington in 1822; an equestrian statue of George III, erected in 1822 at Liverpool; the statue of the Duke of York, fourteen feet high, on the column in Waterloo Place, 1833; and a monument to Lord Penrhyn at Penrhyn, North Wales. Jointly with Flaxman and Baily he executed the reliefs on the Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace (removed to its present situation at Cumberland Gate, Hyde Park, in 1851). One of Westmacott's last works was the ornamental group representing the progress of civilisation in the pediment of the portico of the British Museum, completed in 1847. Here he introduced colour by gilding some of the instruments and setting off the white figures by a blue tympanum. The watercolour design for this group is in the print-room of the British Museum.

In 1827 Westmacott had succeeded Flaxman as professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy. He continued to lecture annually till 1854. His lectures showed considerable archæological knowledge and sound judgment. He was also auditor to the Academy and a regular attendant at its business meetings. He received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford on 15 June 1836, and was knighted on 19 July 1837. He died at 14 South Audley Street on 1 Sept. 1856. On 20 Feb. 1798 he married Dorothy Margaret, daughter of Dr. Wilkinson of Jamaica. His son Richard [q. v.] is separately noticed. A portrait of Westmacott, drawn in crayons, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

A younger brother, (d. 1798), a pupil of James Wyatt, exhibited four architectural designs at the Royal Academy, 1796–8. He received the silver medal for architecture at the Royal Academy in November 1798, and died on 3 Dec. in the same year (Gent. Mag. 1798, ii. 1153).

[Gent. Mag. 1856, new ser. i. 509; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Sandby's Hist. of Royal Acad. i. 379; Royal Academy Catalogues.]  WESTMACOTT, RICHARD (1799–1872), sculptor, the eldest son of Sir Richard Westmacott [q. v.], by his marriage with Dorothy Margaret Wilkinson, was born in London in 1799. He originally desired to become a barrister, but yielded to his father's wish that he should enter his studio and be trained as a sculptor. In 1818 he was admitted to the school of the Royal Academy. In 1820 his father sent him to Italy, where he remained six years, studying ancient sculpture and its history. On his return he resided in his father's house, 14 South Audley Street, till 1830, when he removed to 21 Wilton Place. In 1827 he exhibited his first statue at the Royal Academy, ‘Girl with a Bird.’ This was followed in 1829 by six works, statues of ‘A Reaper’ and ‘Girl with a Fawn,’ and four portrait-busts. In 1830 he exhibited ‘The Guardian Angel;’ in 1831 ‘Venus carrying off Ascanius,’ for the Earl of Ellesmere, for whom he also executed ‘Venus instructing Cupid,’ exhibited in 1838, ‘The Bluebell,’ and ‘The Butterfly.’ In 1832 he exhibited ‘The Cymbal-player,’ purchased by the Duke of Devonshire; in 1833 ‘Narcissus;’ in 1834 ‘The Pilgrim’ and ‘Hope;’ in 1837 ‘Mercury presenting Pandora to Prometheus’ and ‘Wycliffe Preaching’ (for Lutterworth church); in 1838 ‘Paolo and Francesca’ for the Marquis of Lansdowne. In that year Westmacott was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, of which he became a full member in 1849. From 1840 onwards till 1855, when he retired from his profession and ceased to exhibit, he was engaged principally on portrait statues and busts and monumental sculpture. The more interesting of his busts were those of John Henry Newman, 1841; Lord John Russell, 1843; Sir Francis Burdett, 1845; Sir Roderick Murchison, 1848. Other subjects were ‘Ariel,’