Details of Sculptor

Surname

Calvert

Alternative Surname

First Name

James

Initial of Surname

C

Year of Birth/Baptism

c1737

Flourished

Year of Death

Biographical Details

In 1766 he was a pupil of John Francis Moore in Berners Street, Oxford Road. That year he received a premium of 15 guineas in the under 30 category from the Society of Arts, for a Portland stone relief of the Death of Socrates (5). In 1770 he deserted sculpture for the stage and appeared in Dublin in Otway’s Venice Preserved, but though favourably received he did not remain an actor for long, but returned to his old profession and started to model wax portraits in Dublin.
Calvert later came back to England and worked with Crashley for a period, showing his waxes from Crashley’s figure shop in Long Acre (1-4, 6-7). He was also apparently employed by Joseph Wilton RA, for in 1787 he went to Jamaica to erect his master’s monument to Sir B Keith in the Cathedral. By 1783 he had returned to Britain. He exhibited wax portraits at the Free Society and the Society of Artists between 1765 and 1783.
Literary References: RSA Premiums, 1763, 29; Strickland 1, 1913, 149-50; Graves 1907, 47,48; Gunnis 1968, 76; Pyke 1973, 23;
Archival References: GPC
Miscellaneous Drawings: head of Scipio Africanus exhib free Soc, 1767 (60); drawing of Democritus exhib Free Soc, 1767 (61)