Details of Sculptor

Surname

Van der Hagen

Alternative Surname

First Name

of Shrewsbury

Initial of Surname

V

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

Year of Death

c1790

Biographical Details

Nothing is known of Van der Hagen’s early life except that, according to his own advertisements, he trained at ‘European Academies’ (inf. James Lawson). He is unlikely to have been a direct descendant of Gaspar Van Der Hagen who was described as ‘a bachelor’ in the administration letter of his will, but he may have been connected in some way to another Van der Hagen, who received a Royal Academy pension from 1769 until 1775, when the payments were transferred to his widow. He had certainly settled in Shrewsbury by 1765, where he was employed as a carver by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and established his own business as a monumental mason.
An album of Pritchard’s designs in the American Institute of Architects in Washingon DC (reproduced in full by Ionides 1999) includes information on the craftsmen responsible for their execution. It shows that Van der Hagen frequently worked in collaboration with John Nelson and Swift and occasionally with Danders and Halley, carving chimneypieces, frames and other decorative features in various styles for Pritchard. Van der Hagen, Nelson and Swift were all employed on Pritchard’s monument to Richard Ward Offley at Pontesbury (2) and it seems likely that the same team was responsible for carving the large wall-monument, designed by Pritchard, to Richard Lyster at Alberbury, which Gunnis thought ‘exactly like, and very nearly equal to, the work of Sir Henry Cheere’ (Gunnis 1968, 406). Their involvement in the Lyster cannot be confirmed, though Van der Hagen’s signature appears on the small, simple tablet to the memory of Lyster’s wife which was added at the base of the monument at a later date.
Van der Hagen’s most important independent works are the monuments commemorating Maria Lloyd, 1780, at Corwen, Merioneth, and William Vaughan, 1786, at Llanddwywe in the same county, both of which have medallion portraits (8, 15). He appears to have died about 1790 for the following year John Carline I and his partner John Tilley announced that they had purchased Van der Hagen’s stock in trade and intended to carry on his business in monuments and chimneypieces (Shrewsbury Chronicle 1791, inf. James Lawson).
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 406; Rococo 1984, 207; RG/JP, 8, 1495; Ionides 1999, passim
Wills and Administrations: Administration of the will of Jasper otherwise Gaspard Vanderhagen, FRC 17 July 1769