Details of Sculptor

Surname

Deare

Alternative Surname

First Name

John

Initial of Surname

D

Year of Birth/Baptism

1759

Flourished

Year of Death

1798

Biographical Details

John Deare spent most of his short career in Rome producing decorative reliefs for the mansions of wealthy British patrons. He was born in Liverpool on 26 October 1759, the son of a jeweller. Deare showed an interest in art from childhood and his earliest recorded work, carved when he was about 10, was a finely detailed wood skeleton (3).
By May 1776 Deare had moved to London, where he was apprenticed to Thomas Carter II. He was employed principally in carving tablets for chimneypieces but also worked on a monument ‘for General Burgoyne’s Lady, to be put up in the Abbey’ (1) (Smith 1828, II, 308). On 31 December 1777 he enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools, giving his age as 18. Deare and two of his contemporaries, John Flaxman RA and Thomas Proctor, soon became known among the students for their fine draughtsmanship. Their efforts are said to have prompted Joseph Nollekens RA, who was then a visitor, to give up sketching altogether (Smith 1828, II, 12). In 1780 Deare became the youngest artist to win the Academy’s gold medal. The competition was in two stages and Deare submitted a terracotta relief of Adam and Eve from Milton’s Paradise Lost and a sketch of The soldiers going to kill Marius in prison (25, 26). The second work could have been a drawing or a terracotta relief.
He was employed by Carter until the summer of 1783 and went on to work for John Cheere and later for John Bacon RA, for whom he modelled figures for a monument. He also provided models for Derby biscuit porcelain figures to ornament several of Benjamin Vulliamy’s elaborate clocks (41). Meanwhile, he executed a number of independent works in plaster and terracotta, including four reliefs of the seasons (18) and a pediment relief depicting The war of Jupiter and the Titans (24), commissioned by George Gosling of Whitton Park. In 1784 he exhibited several works at the Liverpool Society for the Promotion of Painting and Design (4, 5, 40, 42).
Deare was industrious and often worked late into the night, rarely sleeping before 3am. He studied anatomy, attended dissections and examining life casts at the RA and was particularly fascinated by the physiognomy of criminals. On one occasion J T Smith says he borrowed the head of a hanged criminal and crept into Cheere’s yard late at night to make a cast of it (10). His enthusiasm and self-confidence are apparent from his letters home. In 1783 he wrote to his father, ‘The Sculptors allow me to be the first young fellow in the kingdom, and sometimes come with a model, for me to do them the very great honour of giving it a touch’ (Smith 1828, II, 310).
In 1785 Deare was narrowly beaten by JCF Rossi in the competition to win the Academy’s travelling student scholarship to Rome. The Council however took the unusual step of awarding prizes to both students. Deare set out in May, visiting Bologna and Florence en route and arrived in Rome in the summer of 1785. He remained in Rome for the rest of his life.
He soon started work on a large relief, The judgement of Jupiter (31) which he intended to exhibit at the Academy. Deare was bitterly disappointed when it was rejected because of its size. It was an ambitious work, drawing upon a wide range of sources. The composition of 23 figures was lively and varied and high and low relief carving were combined to great effect. The plaster was later installed at Northwick Park, Worcs and a version in marble was commissioned by Sir Richard Worsley of Appuldurcomb. The marble was confiscated by the French during their occupation of Rome and was lost for many years.
Deare’s first and only RA exhibition entry was a plaster of Edward and Eleanor (30), commissioned by Henry Blundell and shown in 1788. This relief depicts the legend of Queen Eleanor of Castile, risking her life to suck the poison from a wound sustained during the Crusades by her husband, King Edward I. Deare interpreted this British medieval subject in an heroic, neoclassical style. The subject matter and elements of the composition may have been suggested by Angelica Kauffman’s painting of the same subject, exhibited at the RA in 1776, during Deare’s time as a student.
In Rome Deare filled many notebooks with his studies of ancient sculpture and became a leader of the city’s artistic community. The critic and collector George Cumberland described the sculptor’s apartment in the Corso as an informal academy where students gathered to compare their studies and plan expeditions to ancient sites. Deare’s circle included the painters Charles Grignion, Robert Fagan and Hugh Robinson. A close associate was John Penn, who had inherited a fortune from the sale of land in Pennsylvania. Penn commissioned a bust (13) and an overmantle relief of Caesar invading Britain (20).
Deare’s scholarship from the Academy terminated in June 1788, but he had several commissions in hand and so was able to remain in Rome without financial support. By 1791 he was well established and he wrote to tell his brother, Joseph Deare, who also became a sculptor, ‘I have several men who work for me, and a boy who acts as my servant. I have the best study in Rome and live like a gentleman’ (Smith 1828, II, 324).
Most of Deare’s patrons were English visitors to the city. They included Henry Blundell, the Earl-Bishop of Bristol, Prince Augustus Frederick, Edward Poore, Thomas Hope and Sir Andrew Corbet Corbet, who commissioned a marble version of Edward and Eleanor (30) and a chimneypiece with a frieze of the Nine Muses (19) for Adderley Hall, Salop. In 1787 Sir Cecil Bisshop ordered a relief, Venus reclining on a sea monster with Cupid and a putto (also known as the Marine Venus) for Parham Park (29). Deare’s Venus relief drew on classical Roman depictions of nymphs riding on sea monsters, but he introduced a languid, sensuous quality derived from Florentine sculpture of the 16th century. The subject gave him an opportunity to demonstrate his virtuosity in rendering in marble such diverse textures as flesh, hair, animal fur and sea foam. Another version of the subject was commissioned by Sir Richard Worsley, who evidently boasted of his acquisition, for Nollekens is said to have commented ‘I don’t see the wonderful merit in [Deare’s] Marine Venus that Sir Richard Worsley talks so much about’ (Smith 1828, II, 49).
Deare was involved only marginally in the trade in antiquities. He collected excavated works himself, occasionally assisted British patrons who wished to make purchases and made several copies of ancient sculpture, including a bust of Ariadne, after a work in the Capitoline Museum (11). He carved copies of the Apollo Belvedere and the Medici Venus for Lord Berwick (6, 7). This lucrative commission evidently caused friction between Deare and a rival sculptor, Christopher Hewetson, for Deare accused Hewetson of trying to influence Lord Berwick against him. Deare was in general critical of sculptors who made their living restoring, faking and selling antiquities. His attitude did not endear him to Nollekens, who would comment on hearing of Deare’s death ‘he was a very upstart fellow, or he ought to have made money by sending over some antiques from Rome’ (Smith 1828, I, 231-2).
Deare’s career continued to flourish through the 1790s. In 1795 he wrote to Joseph that he had sold chimneypieces to the Prince of Wales (22) and the Earl-Bishop (21) and was working on busts of Prince Augustus Frederick (15) and Lady Webster (16). In 1797 it was thought that the Committee of Taste might commission him to carve a monument for St Paul’s Cathedral (Farington III, 947), but the following year, on 17 August 1798, he died at the age of 38. Deare was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.
There are several accounts of his cause of death. Charles Grignion told Deare’s family that he had died after suffering from ‘bilious fever’ for eight days. Another possibility, recorded by J T Smith, was that he had slept on a block of marble in the hope that this would inspire his next work and caught a chill which killed him in just a few days. Yet another colourful account claimed that he was murdered or died of a broken heart having been thrown into prison by the commander of the French troops, who had fallen in love with his wife. Deare left a young widow, who was six months pregnant, and a three year old daughter. The sculptor Vincenzo Pacetti was appointed his executor and ordered an inventory of the contents of his studio. This lists many pieces of unworked marble, some antiquities, casts and several reliefs, most of which are untraced.
Deare’s work was admired by most contemporaries and it was generally felt that if only he had lived longer he would have been recognised as a very great sculptor. Since much of his work was either installed in private houses or dispersed during the French occupation of Rome, it is only in recent that years that it has come into the public domain and so received the attention it deserves. It is now again recognised for its originality and technical virtuosity.
EH
Literary References: Farington, passim; Smith 1828, I, 183, 231-2; II, 12, 49, 303-333; Hutchison 1960-62, 143; Gunnis 1968, 123-4; Ford 1974, 431; Penny 1977 (1), 10, 15; Laing 1983, 187; Clifford 1990, 227-30, 235; Knox 1996, 95 n35; Grove 8, 1996, 587-8 (Bryant); ODNB (Stevens); Ingamells 1997, 87-8; 287-9; Fogelman 2000, 85-126; Avery 2002, 50-7; Coltman 2009, 137
Archival References: RA Council Minutes, vol 2, 1785, fol 1
Additional MS Sources: Deare Inventory
Collections of Drawings: two volumes of drawings (236) mainly of antiquities and statues in Rome, many s&d, VAM P&D E.57-291-1966; volume of drawings (138) by Deare and James Paine, Roman subjects, some s, VAM P&D E.238-376-1968; 7 drawings, Harris M & AG, pl 23-9; sketchbook (79 drawings), Walker 6415-6494
Miscellaneous Drawings: study of two nude youths, BM PDB 1973,9414.10; pensive male figure seated on a chair, BM, PDB 1973,0414.9; Venus and Cupid, dated 9 September,1786, pen and ink, VAM P&D E.575-1931; small triangular altar, Villa Albani, sgd John Deare 1788, pen, ink and wash, VAM P&D E.576-1931; a Roman Wedding, pen and ink, VAM P&D E.577-1931; scene from Coriolanus, VAM P&D E.578-1931; two male figures in attitudes of flight, VAM P&D E.579-1931; pine tree in Villa Pamphili, VAM P&D E.580-1931; Cypress on Monte Mario, VAM P&D E.581-1931; nude male figure with rearing horse, Walker, 10820; design for a tomb monument, private coll (Fogelman 2000, 120, repr)
Portraits of the Sculptor: Charles Grignion, pen and ink drawing, Harris M & AG, P130