Details of Sculptor

Surname

Van der Hagen

Alternative Surname

First Name

Gaspar

Initial of Surname

V

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1763

Year of Death

1769

Biographical Details

A carver in ivory and marble, Van der Hagen was a long-term assistant to Michael Rysbrack. His date of birth is unknown and no information has surfaced on his training, but he had relatives in Antwerp. He was in London by 1744 when the Daily Advertiser made reference to “Mess. Claessens and Ven Hagen, at Mr Rysbrack’s in Vere Street, near Oxford Chapel’. Claessens was Rysbrack’s foreman who died on 4 December 1749. In 1747 Vertue noted ‘Mr Vander Hagen. Sculptor works for Mr Rysbrack. has done several heads portraits in Ivory.—very well. but not meeting with propper encouragement did not continue’ (Vertue III, 135). The lack of encouragement must have been temporary, for Van der Hagen was still exhibiting ivory portraits nearly 20 years later. His small bust of the Duke of Cumberland is a very assured, minutely detailed and textured rendering of a larger marble work by his master (4). It suggests that Van der Hagen had considerable talent.
He was still lodging with his master in Vere Street, Oxford Road in 1766, and four works by him were sold in the auction of Rysbrack’s collection held by Langford on 14 February 1767 (2, 6, 10, 11). The Sacrifice to Hercules, which resurfaced in 2002 (6) is a competent work after a terracotta model by Rysbrack, itself based on a relief on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.
Rysbrack bequeathed £50 to ‘Gaspar Vanderhagen Statuary who did live with me’ in his will, dated 5 March 1768, and an undated codicil adds ‘Gaspar Vanderhagen dyed before me’. In fact Vanderhagen was still alive in 1768, but had moved to York, where he died in 1769. The timing was unfortunate for Van der Hagen appears to have lived out his last days in penury. In 1768 he applied to the Society of Artists for support, ‘being in great necessity’, and received four guineas (Society of Artists’ Archives, Burlington House).
His goods were administered by his sisters Isabella and Catherine (Harman), both of whom lived in Antwerp. These executors held a sale of their brother’s work on 17 April 1771. Van der Hagen was described in the catalogue as the ‘principal assistant to the late Mr. Rysbrack,’ and the sale included ‘several fine heads and figures in ivory, basso relievos in marble, books of prints, &c’ (Anecdotes 1937, 154-5).
In the letters of administration Van der Hagen is described as a ‘bachelor’, so it is perhaps unlikely that Vanderhagen of Shrewsbury was, as Gunnis supposed, his immediate offspring. The Royal Academy pension paid to a Mr Vanderhagen between 1769 and 1775, and subsequently to the widow of the same until 1781, also relates to another family.
After Jean Cavalier and David le Marchand, with whom he shares some stylistic similarities, Van der Hagen is currently the best documented ivory carver of the 18th century. However the large corpus of works includes many attributions, not here listed. Among them are an oval medallion of John Milton, signed ‘VDHN’ (VAM), as well as many unsigned works and others with the incongruous signatures, ‘GVD,’ ‘GVDR’ and ‘GVR.’ (Add inf. Gordon Balderston, Marjorie Trusted)
MGS
Literary References: Graves 1907, 263; Webb 1954, 68, 186, 189; Gunnis 1968, 406; Davis 1970 (1), 16; Davis 1971 (4), 1223
Archival References: SAA SA/34/1; SA/37/6
Wills and Administrations: Administration of the will of Jasper otherwise Gaspard Vanderhagen, 17 July 1769, FRC PROB 6/145/27; will of Michael Rysbrack PROB 11/954/224-6
Auction Catalogues: Van der Hagen 1771