Details of Sculptor

Surname

Plumier

Alternative Surname

First Name

Pierre-Denis

Initial of Surname

P

Year of Birth/Baptism

1688

Flourished

Year of Death

1721

Biographical Details

Plumier was an Antwerp-born sculptor who combined classical and naturalistic elements in an ambitious series of secular and sacred commissions in his native land. He was baptised in Antwerp Cathedral on 14 March 1688 and ten years later was admitted to the Guild of St Luke as a pupil of the sculptor Ludovic Willemssens (†1702). It is not certain where he completed his training. Among his most powerful works are two ambitious baroque groups in marble, The Rape of Proserpine and Abundance supported by Science and Military Power, both carved c1712 for the Palais d’Egmont-Arenberg, Brussels. He also responsible for the Spinola family monument in Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, Brussels, 1716-17, a dramatic triangular composition featuring a bearded figure of Cronos carrying a medallion portrait, a kneeling female mourner and an angel representing Fame. He also carved the magnificent oak pulpit for Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, Brussels, which features a naturalistic tableau of Elias and the Angel and was completed by his former assistants in Brussels, c1720.
Vertue notes that he came to England ‘by the encouragement of my Lord Codogon for whom he was to make some Statues. & also for my Lord Castlemain’ (Vertue I, 91). He arrived in London c1717 with a number of assistants, one of whom was his former apprentice, Laurent Delvaux. Plumier took premises in Long Ditch and Peter Scheemakers joined the workshop around 1720.
John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, considered commissioning his bust from Plumier but recoiled when he was given an estimate of 50 guineas, exclaiming ‘then you had best return [to Flanders] ... for here you are not like to get so much’ (Vertue III, 106). The Duke was so disgusted at Plumier’s prices that ‘he evry where immediately went and spoke against him - and his extravagant prices’ (ibid). He died early in 1721 and his widow, a woman of independent mind, invited Plumier to provide a design for her husband’s monument (1). His proposal, a variation on the Spinola monument, was another triangular arrangement with a reclining ducal effigy in Roman armour attended by a kneeling spouse, whilst above, on a bracket, was a life-sized figure of Cronos, carrying away portrait medallions of dead Sheffield children. Plumier prepared the maquette for the kneeling duchess, but died of consumption soon after, leaving Delvaux and Scheemakers to complete the monument to Plumier’s design. It received much attention for its novelty and the combination of classical quotations and high narrative drama. Vertue described Plumier’s premature death as a cause for regret ‘of all lovers of arts’ (Vertue I, 91). A number of his models were auctioned with other works sold by Delvaux and Scheemakers in 1728.
Literary References: Jacobs 1999 (2), 113-70; Roscoe 1999, 178-80
Auction Catalogues: Scheemakers and Delvaux, 1728 (1)
Miscellaneous Drawings and Engravings: 8 ‘plates of Cacchanals Etch'd by Plimier’, Scheemakers and Delvaux sale 1728, day 1, lot 86, untraced; 22 drawings, day 2, lot 4
Portraits of the Sculptor: P Baert, ink and wash, nd, Bibliotheque Royale, Brussels (repr Jacobs 1999 (2), 114)