Details of Sculptor

Surname

Diemar

Alternative Surname

First Name

Emmanuel Matthias

Initial of Surname

D

Year of Birth/Baptism

1720

Flourished

Year of Death

1795

Biographical Details

He was born in 1720, the son of a Berlin gunmaker, Matthias Diemar and had two brothers, Nathaniel and Benjamin, who became well-known painters. Around 1760 Emanuel and Benjamin left Berlin, and by 1761 both were exhibiting at the Free Society in London. Over the two following decades Emanuel exhibited wax portraits, landscapes, still-life and literary subjects with the Society of Artists. In 1769 he gave his address as ‘opposite the Lying-in Hospital, Westminster Bridge’ (Graves 1907, 77). In 1771 Eleanor Coade lodged with ‘Mr Demar’ at ‘Bridge Head, Lambeth’, which may have been Diemar’s address (Kelly 1990, 38, 43). In 1770 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Artists and in 1772 a director. By 1777 he had taken a shop at 377 Strand, on the north side between Carle Court and Maygold Court.
In addition to his work as a wax modeller, Diemar was a gunmaker and an engraver. A pair of signed flintlock pistols, which are chiselled and engraved, survive in the Royal Collection. In 1780 he published The History and Amours of Rhodope, which had engraved drawings by Angelica Kaufmann. In 1783, he took out a Sun Insurance policy on his household goods and stock valued at £800, giving his profession as gunsmith and printseller. In 1785 he moved to 114 Strand, London and issued an elaborate tradecard describing himself as ‘Printseller and publisher’ (Guildhall Library, reproduced in Blackmore 1989, 108).
Diemar clearly ran a prosperous concern for when his insurance was renewed in 1791 the value of his stock and goods was £2,000. In his will, prepared in 1790, he left his estate to his widow Ann, who carried on the business. His death on 24 April 1795 was announced in the Gentleman’s Magazine. He was buried in the Lutheran church, Savoy, at a cost of £6. The will directed that ‘three days after my decease before I am buried my coffin be filled up with hot rossin and immersed in plaister and afterwards interred in a plain decent manner’ (PROB 11/1268 fol 678 in Blackmore 1989, 109).
Gunnis identified a second wax-modeller, John Emmanuel Diemar. It seems likely that this was Emmanuel Matthias and that the confusion is caused by inconsistent spelling in the exhibition catalogues of the Society of Artists.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 130; Pyke 1973, 39; Blackmore 1989, 105-142