Details of Sculptor

Surname

Weekes

Alternative Surname

First Name

Henry RA

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

1807

Flourished

Year of Death

1877

Biographical Details

Henry Weekes was one of the leading portrait sculptors of the mid-19th century. He was professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy for many years and his published lectures and art criticism provide valuable insights into the theory and practice of sculpture during that period. He was born in Canterbury, the only son of Capon Weekes, a bank clerk, and was educated at the King’s School. He was a studious pupil who did well academically, although ‘he was not a favourite with his schoolfellows, who, after the manner of boys, did not comprehend his retiring, thoughtful ways.’ (Weekes 1880, 1). From an early age he showed an interest in art, which his father encouraged him to pursue. His first recorded work, a model of St George and the dragon based on the image on a coin, was made when he was about 12 years old (198). In 1822, at the age of 15, he was apprenticed to William Behnes, who had a studio in Dean Street, London. There Weekes ‘learned more holding a candle for Behnes while modelling than by any actual instruction he received from him’ (Weekes 1880, 3). The following year he became a student at the Royal Academy Schools, where he regularly attended the evening life class and won a silver medal for a model from the antique in 1826.
When his apprenticeship came to an end in 1827, Weekes became an assistant to Francis Chantrey RA. He remained in Chantrey’s employment until that sculptor’s death, about 14 years later. Chantrey provided Weekes with accommodation and a small studio near to his own in Pimlico, and soon Weekes began to undertake independent commissions in addition to his work for Chantrey. In 1838 Queen Victoria commissioned a bust of herself from Weekes as a gift for the Duchess of Kent (95). It was the first sculpted portrait of the young Queen to be executed after her accession. Weekes oversaw the completion of Chantrey’s unfinished works after his death in 1841, including a statue of the Duke of Wellington for the Royal Exchange. He put the sum of £1000 left to him by his former employer towards purchasing Chantrey’s studio.
Commissions came quickly, principally for portrait busts and funerary monuments. Like Chantrey he varied the format of his many portrait busts to accord with the subject: a classical herm was considered appropriate for a representation of Henry William Whitbread (149), whilst Edmund Hammond was depicted in classical drapery (172) and Dr Mead’s bust is enlivened by picturesque historical costume (168). The monument to Samuel and Elizabeth Whitbread is considered particularly successful (29): Nicholas Penny has commented ‘The heavy draperies, the bold modelling, and also the sentiment mark this as a work of an artist profoundly influenced by Chantrey’ (Penny 1977 (1), 79). Weekes’s best known monument is the dramatic group commemorating Percy Bysshe Shelley, erected by the poet’s son at Christchurch Priory, Hampshire in 1854 (35). It depicts the drowned man lying amid broken pieces of rock, as if just washed ashore, supported by an idealized figure of his wife.
Weekes executed a number of works for public and institutional patrons. The council of the Royal College of Surgeons acquired six busts of officials of the College between 1844 and 1863 (106, 128, 136, 147) and was presented with a statue of John Hunter, funded by public subscription, for its Hunterian Museum in 1864 (68). In 1856 the Corporation of London commissioned a figure of Sardanapalus, the Assyrian king celebrated by Byron (64). This is one of an important of series of statues based upon English literature which ornament the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House. It was exceptional for a civic institution to purchase ideal sculpture on such a scale and Weekes was fortunate to receive this high-profile commission. He provided statues of Sir Francis Bacon and Dr William Harvey for Eton College and the Oxford University Museum (53, 67). His flamboyant statue of King Charles II in contemporary dress (74) was originally intended for the Royal gallery at the new Palace of Westminster, where it was to be sited near statues of English monarchs by Thomas Thornycroft, William Theed II, Thomas Woolner RA and Alexander Munro. When the statues were completed they were found to be too large for their designated niches and after some years in Westminster Hall, the series was transferred to the Old Bailey.
Weekes also contributed to the most important and elaborate public commemorative scheme of the period, the Albert Memorial. He was chosen to execute the group symbolising Manufactures (69) after Patrick MacDowell, who was originally to have carved it, was assigned one of the larger groups of the Continents in place of John Gibson. The group includes idealized representations of an iron worker, a potter and a textile factory girl, ‘too well favoured in every way, it is to be feared, to have been modelled after nature’, grouped around the allegorical figure of Manufactures. Later, together with H H Armstead, he supervised the casting of the bronze statue of the Prince Consort, the focus of the memorial, following the death of J H Foley RA before its completion.
Weekes exhibited at the RA between 1828 and 1877 and at the British Institution from 1850 to 1866. In addition to portraiture he showed a small number of ideal works, including The suppliant (57) and the Young naturalist (63). He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1850 and a full member in 1862, when he deposited, as his diploma work, a bust of Joseph Henry Green, the Academy’s professor of anatomy (147).
Weekes also enjoyed considerable success as a writer and teacher. In 1852 he was awarded a gold medal for his essay, Fine Arts at the Great Exhibition. In 1869 he joined the staff of the RA Schools as professor of sculpture and travelled to Italy to study classical art in preparation for this new role. His Royal Academy lectures were published posthumously as Lectures on Art, prefaced by a biography of the sculptor by John Ernest Weekes. Half the lectures explored the themes of composition, beauty, taste, style, idealism and realism in sculpture, colour in sculpture, education and portraiture. The latter part of the book is principally an historical survey. Weekes viewed the reconciliation of idealism and realism in sculpture as a key issue. The two extremes, an ossified and increasingly irrelevant neo-classicism as practiced by John Gibson RA and the excessive, flamboyant realism exemplified in the work of Carlo, Baron Marochetti, seemed equally unsatisfactory to him and he advised his students to follow a middle path. He discussed the training of sculptors, stressing the importance of having both a practical and an intellectual education and lamented the inadequacy of the teaching and facilities offered to sculptors at the RA Schools. His lectures have been described as ‘the most consistent and intelligent exposition of sculptural thinking in the Victorian era and, as far as the published material goes, exceptional if not unique’ (Read 1982, 16-7).
In 1876 Weekes, who was now in poor health, retired to Ramsgate. There he formed a friendship with Sir Moses Montefiore, a leading Jewish businessman and philanthropist, who had established a synagogue on his estate in Ramsgate. Two of his last works were busts of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his wife for St Peter’s Orphanage at Broadstairs in Kent (176, 180). When his health deteriorated further Weekes returned to London, where he died on 28 May 1877. He was buried in Kensal Green cemetery in a grave marked by a simple red granite ledger-stone. His biography in the preface to the essays described him as, ‘about the middle height, his head large, the forehead high and square, features rugged and irregular, but thoughtful and expressive. Upright and true in thought, word, and deed, he expressed his opinions fearlessly and with decision on all subjects within the scope of his experience; while his simple kindly manner, remarkable powers of conversation, and freshness of idea gave a charm to his society, rare as it was delightful’ (Weekes 1880, 9-10).
The acerbic contemporary critic, F T Palgrave, dismissed the sculptor as a follower of Chantrey’s ‘coarse and careless style in modelling and execution’ (Palgrave 1866, 293) and condemned the exaggerated features of his portraits, singling out the bust of Sir George Cornewall Lewis in Westminster Abbey (45), which he called ‘as unpleasant a caricature of a fine head as any we can remember’(Palgrave 1866, 85). However, as an enthusiastic supporter of Thomas Woolner Palgrave was often severe in his criticisms of his rivals and clearly his views were not typical for Weekes had little difficulty in attracting patronage. Like many sculptors of the mid-century, Weekes’ reputation declined soon after his death and has not revived, though he has been described as ‘an unjustly forgotten figure’ and ‘the finest English portrait sculptor of his day’ (Radcliffe 1969, 50).
EH
Literary References: Sandby II, 1862, 351-2; Palgrave 1866, 37, 82, 84-6, 122, 225, 293; Weekes 1880, passim; DNB, LX, 1899, 148; Radcliffe 1969, 50-1; Penny 1977 (1), 11, 79, 160-1, 195, 205 n22; Read 1982, passim; Grove 33, 1996, 24 (Turpin); Curl 2001, 243; ODNB (Stevens); Sullivan 2010, 305
Additional Manuscript Sources: Chantrey/Lewis; Foley/Weekes; Weekes/Ansdell; Weekes/Cunningham
Wills and Administrations: PPR, will with codicil, 25 June 1877, fol 535, effects under £25,000, re-sworn January 1878, effects under £30,000
Auction Catalogues: Weekes and others 1880
Portraits of the Sculptor: self-portrait, bust, untraced (185)