Details of Sculptor

Surname

Vangelder

Alternative Surname

First Name

Peter Mathias

Initial of Surname

V

Year of Birth/Baptism

c1742

Flourished

Year of Death

1809

Biographical Details

Vangelder was born in Amsterdam, but nothing is known of his parentage, early life or training. He was first recorded in London in September 1769, when he entered the Royal Academy schools, giving his age as 27. He was an outstanding student, winning a silver medal in the same year and a gold medal for a bas-relief in 1771 (39, 40). In the competition for the latter he also submitted a ‘sketch’ (perhaps a drawing) of Samson and Delilah. In May 1772 the Royal Academy council wrote to Van Gelder, along with three other students asking if he wanted to be considered as a candidate ‘to be sent abroad on his Majesty’s pension’. In the event the scholarship was won by Thomas Banks (RA Council Minutes, vol 1, 1772, fol 135).
He was employed in the busy workshop of Thomas Carter II from 1769. John Deare, who was apprenticed to Carter in 1776, recorded in June that year that Vangelder had carved a ‘large figure’ for Carter which was currently in the shop, and that the Dutchman was ‘considered one of the best hands in London at foliage’ (Smith 1828, vol 2, 306). This skill was most clearly demonstrated in the monument to Mary Frampton (1), which the antiquary John Hutchins described in 1774 as ‘esteemed by connoisseurs one of the completest pieces of sculpture in this Kingdom’ (Hutchins 1, 1861, 403). The monument is a simple wall-slab in a frame carved with wild and cultivated flowers. Its appeal was lasting: Gunnis called it ‘one of the most enchanting works of art in any English church’ (Gunnis 1968, 407).
Vangelder appears to have begun working independently whilst employed at Carter’s workshop. Deare wrote that Vangelder ‘was seven years in saving a thousand pounds, by keeping men at work at his own house, while he got two guineas a week at Mr Carter’s’ (Smith 1828, vol 2, 306). By June 1776 he had set up his own premises in Riding House Lane.
In April 1775 he married Martha Evans at St Marylebone. The connection was to prove useful: she was the daughter of the carpenter and architect Charles Evans, who subsequently employed Vangelder to carve sculptural ornaments for 20, Upper Grosvenor Street, London and for St Michael, Badminton, which Evans rebuilt for the 5th Duke of Beaufort (35).
Vangelder was the executant of several monuments designed by the architect Robert Adam. The memorial commemorating Mary, Duchess of Montagu (3), which was at least part-designed by Adam, takes the form of a semi-circular platform decorated with low-relief carvings of women, one engaged in painting, another in sewing and a third holding an inverted torch. Ionic pilasters and festoons set off the figures. On this platform is a sculptural scene reflecting the Duchess’s most admired virtue, charity. An angel shows the seated Duchess the path to Heaven, while two orphans and a widow mourn her death. The monument to Major John André has a relief carving of the British officer soliciting pardon from George Washington, who had ordered André's execution as a spy during the American War of Independence (5). The monument to Robert Child has a pyramid flanked by finely-carved candelabra (6).
Vangelder’s business was diverse, like many another traditional mason-sculptor. As a building contractor he put up houses in Bedford Square (1781), Riding House Lane (1786) and Devonshire Place (1793), and he was responsible for a considerable amount of architectural sculpture for the City livery companies. He provided chimneypieces at Northwick Park (26) ‘in a superior style of elegance’ (GM, vol 63, 1793, 298) and supplied at least one chimneypiece for Adam at Culzean Castle (30). His wall-monuments typically comprise pyramids, above inscription tablets flanked by fluted borders to suggest the edges of a sarcophagus (2, 13, 15). There were variations: the monument to James West has a gothic, almost oriental arch (12), whilst Alexander Hume’s has two large dolphins either side of an altar tomb (11).
Vangelder died on 3 September 1809, in Upper Norton Street, Marylebone. His obituary states that he was 70 (GM, 1809, vol 79, pt II, 392). He entrusted his properties in Gower Street to William Meredith of Harley Place and William Winfield of St Martin’s Lane. Mary Franklin of Cricklewood Farm was left £2,500 in annuities, and £200, also in annuities, went to the son of his surgeon. All Vangelder’s household goods and furniture, including his jewellery, china, glassware, books, prints, wines and liquors were left to his wife, Martha. She died on 6 March 1814, at Upper George Street, Portman Square (GM, 1814, pt1, 414), and parts of Vangelder’s estate remained unadministered until 1842.
MGS
Literary References: Hutchison 1960-2, 123; Gunnis 1968, 407; Penny 1977 (1), 192, 224 n43; Whinney 1988, 313; Colvin 1995, 355
Archival References: RA Premium list; Middx Sessions Colls of Records, MR/B; IGI
Will: PROB 11/1506/494-8