Richard Westmacott

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Sir Richard Westmacott, Jr., RA (1775–1856) was a British sculptor. He studied under his father, Richard Westmacott the Elder, before going to Rome in 1793 to study under Antonio Canova. Upon returning to England in 1797, he set up a prodigious studio (John Edward Carew and Musgrave Watson gained experience here) and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy, where his diploma work, Jupiter and Ganymede, can still be seen. He was made a Royal Academician in 1811 and was professor of sculpture at the RA from 1827. He received his knighthood in 1837.

Among his works are the reliefs for the north side of Marble Arch, the sculptures of figures representing 'The Rise of Civilisation' on the pediment of the British Museum, and the Waterloo Vase now in Buckingham Palace Gardens. The enormous urn was sculpted from chunks of marble earmarked by Napoleon for a trophy commemorating his imagined victory in the Napoleonic Wars and then given to George IV as a gift from the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Westmacott also sculpted memorials to Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox in Westminster Abbey; and to Nelson at Bull Ring, Birmingham, Liverpool and Barbados. The statue of Horatio Nelson, Birmingham was the first statue of Nelson in Britain.

Westmacott lived and died at 14 South Audley Street, Mayfair, London (commemorated by a blue plaque). His son, Richard Westmacott (the younger), followed closely in his footsteps becoming a notable sculptor, Academician and RA professor of sculpture.