Christopher Hewetson

Christopher Hewetson
Born 1737
Thomastown, Kilkenny
Died 1798
Rome, Italy
Resting place Protestant Cemetery, Rome
Nationality Irish
Education Kilkenny College
Known for Bust sculptures
Notable work Bust of Pope Clement XIV
For the Archdeacon of Chester, see Christopher Hewetson (priest).

Christopher Hewetson (c.1737–1798) was a neoclassical sculptor of portrait busts. Born in Ireland, he was active in Rome.

Pope Clement XIV by Christopher Hewetson, 1773, Victoria and Albert Museum
Thomas Mansel Talbot by Christopher Hewetson, c.1773, Victoria and Albert Museum
Frederick Hervey by Christopher Hewetson, 1778, National Portrait Gallery, London

Biography

Hewetson was born in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1737/8[1] the son of Lieutenant Christopher Hewetson whose ancestry was from Yorkshire. His father died in 1744 when Christopher was only 7, leaving his mother Eleanor with four young children to raise.[2]

He studied at Kilkenny College, where his uncle the Rev. Dr Thomas Hewetson was headmaster, and in Dublin under John van Nost the younger.[3]

In 1765 he arrived in Rome with the American painter Henry Benbridge. He remained in Rome for the remainder of his life with the exception of two brief visits to Naples in 1766 and 1797.

With the assistance of Thomas Jenkins, Hewetson received commissions from numerous British and Irishmen visiting Rome on the Grand Tour. He also sculpted busts of a number of local churchmen. Antonio Canova was at Rome during part of Hewetson's stay. The rivalry between the two sculptors emerged in two great commissions, the Tomb for Pope Clemens XIV and the Tomb for Pope Clemens XIII, both won by Canova. In the last phase of his career Hewetson held a two-sided production: he sculpted copies after the Antique - sometimes in marble, more often in plaster - as well as portrait-busts. His workshop was in Via San Sebastianello, very close to Piazza di Spagna.[4] Hewetson never married. He died at Rome in 1798,[1] where he was buried in the Protestant Cemetery. His inventory after death, recently found, revealed the presence of 12 busts, some left unfinished, and of a considerable number of copies after the antique.[5]

Works

Christopher Hewetson: Marble bust of Angelica Kauffman in the parish church of Schwarzenberg, Austria
Christopher Hewetson: Bust of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 Myrone, Martin (2004). "Hewetson, Christopher (1737/8–1798)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62066. Retrieved 2012-05-23. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  2. ↑ http://217.204.55.158/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1295
  3. ↑ http://archive.irishartsreview.com/irisartsrevi1984/pdf/1986/20491907.pdf.bannered.pdf
  4. ↑ Coen 2012
  5. ↑ Coen, 2012
  6. ↑ Ralph Hennings/Torben Koopmann: St. Lamberti-Kirche in Oldenburg, Berlin/Munich 2011, p. 64-65.
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