Details of Sculptor

Surname

Regnart

Alternative Surname

First Name

Charles, of London

Initial of Surname

R

Year of Birth/Baptism

1759

Flourished

Year of Death

1844

Biographical Details

Regnart was born in Bristol, the son of Philip Regnart. He was listed as a ‘statuary’ at 4 Cleveland Street in 1793 (Wakefield’s Directory 1794, p.357), but was at 12 Cleveland Steet, Fitzroy Square by 1800 when his name was recorded in the Royal Academy Index but not in the Catalogue (Graves VI, 1905-6, 253). Gunnis describes him as an extremely competent monumental mason whose work may be found all over England. His masterpiece is the altar tomb with a recumbent figure of George Rush at Farthinghoe (36). It depicts Rush as ‘an old, old, man, thin and emaciated, clad in a loose robe with slippers on his feet and his Bible in his hand ... at the point of death’, his eyes gazing towards heaven. Gunnis describes this effigy as ‘one of the most remarkable and unusual executed in Britain during the early nineteenth century’. Regnart exhibited the tomb chest and a model of the figure at the RA in 1806. His business was obviously in some difficulties by 1808 as in February that year he was listed as a bankrupt (Monthly Magazine 1808, p.72). In 1817 he was presumably the ‘Mr Regnart, sculptor’ who placed an advert disposing of a monument ‘upon reasonable terms’ which presumably had been left on his hands by a client. It was elegant and ‘richly sculptured: the design will prove a handsome memorial to any relative or friend deceased’ (The Times, 22 January 1817). Regnart gave his address as 4 St James Place, Hampstead Road, near the top of Tottenham-Court Road.
Regnart was married twice, first to a Miss Esther Hunter of Hexham at St Marylebone 14 December 1791 (Parish Register, LMA, P89/MRY1/174) and, after her death, to his cook. He had one son, Charles, born to his first wife in 1796. He died on 19 November 1844 and was buried in the Hampstead Road cemetery. In 1850 the Royal Academy made a charitable gift to ‘Jane Regnart’ who was probably his widow (RA Archives in Gunnis 1968, 317).
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 317