John Edward Carew (circa 1782-1868)

Julian Silva, San Francisco, USA

The exhibition of the Royal Academy, MDCCCXX. The fifty-second, London, 1820, p. 46, no. 1034;
A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904, London, 1905, vol. I, p. 393;
R. F. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, London, 1953, p. 80;
I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M. G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, New Haven and London, 2009, p. 198, no. 56

Born around 1782 at Tramore, County Waterford, Carew is thought to have undertaken some artistic training in Dublin, before arriving in London in 1809, where he started working as an assistant to Sir Richard Westmacott R.A. (1775 – 1856), a prominent pupil of Antonio Canova and one of England’s most prolific monumental sculptors. Whilst not much of Carew’s life is known today, the gifted Irish sculptor was known to have exhibited regularly in the Royal Academy, between 1812 – 1848, and on two occasions at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin.

Carew’s first notable work, the bust of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1813, established his reputation as a sculptor. The present bust can safely be identified with the ‘Bust of His late Majesty’ which Carew exhibited a few years later, in 1820, also at the Summer Exhibition (no. 1034). In 1821, whilst remaining in Westmacott’s employment, he also set up his own studio at 62 Edgware Road, London. By 1823, Carew’s works had been so well-received that he was invited by Lord Egremont to devote his talents almost entirely to his patronage.
George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751 – 1837), an eccentric art collector and patron of J. M. W. Turner, was best known for his generous patronage of British artists. Indeed, at his Sussex residence, Petworth House, which Constable referred to as ‘the house of art’, he often hosted artists such as John Flaxman, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Charles Leslie and Francis Chantrey. Carew continued to live in London while working for Lord Egremont until 1831, when he moved to Brighton, at Egremont’s request; later, in 1835, he would move to Grove House, Petworth, a property belonging to the Earl, remaining there until the death of his patron in November 1837. Between 1823 and 1837, whilst working for Lord Egremont, Carew produced various busts, statues, marble groups, and chimneypieces, and he is even thought to have restored ancient sculptures brought from Rome, such as the Dionysus (Petworth House, inv. no. NT 486320). Petworth still houses a splendid collection of Carew’s work in marble, including the Arethusa (1823, inv. no. NT 486407) – the first work that the Earl acquired directly from Carew’s London studio – Adonis and the Boar (1826, inv. no. NT 486404), Venus, Vulcan and Cupid (1827, inv. no. NT 486418), The Falconer (1830, inv. NT 486406), Prometheus and Pandora (1835, inv. no. NT 486419), and a portrait bust of Egremont himself (1831, inv. no. NT 486411).

In addition to his work for Lord Egremont, Carew received numerous prominent public commissions; amongst these are the statue of Sir Richard Whittington listening to the London Bells, realised in 1844 for the façade of the Royal Exchange, the statue of Henry Grattan for St Stephen’s Hall in the Palace of Westminster, completed in 1857, and, most notably, the bronze relief depicting the Death of Nelson, the most important and strategically positioned relief at the base of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square. Carew is also recorded to have made two marble chimneypieces for Buckingham Palace in 1829.

Carew has often been described as a charming character and his natural talents were highly appreciated by his contemporaries. In a diary entry, his friend Benjamin Robert Haydon, wrote: ‘Carew is a fine hearted man & perhaps the best cutter of marble in England [...] he has great talent, uncultivated by Education either in Art or Literature, but a sound heart; he would rather be the advance of other men than advance himself [...] as rapid as lightening with his chisel, but idle in thought [...] cutting heads from memory & statues without Nature, the wonder is he does so well! – but he has Genius & conception! – light spirits & a gay mind!’ (Haydon, op. cit., p. 172).

The present bust, a fine example of Carew’s technical and artistic accomplishment, represents a portrait of King George III. Conveying noble gravitas, the late King is portrayed all’antica, wearing a toga bearing the star of the Order of the Garter, the highest English chivalric order, pinned to the left breast. King George’s togate portrayal evokes an allegory of Caesarean power and grandeur, establishing a direct connection to the rulers and generals of the glorious Roman Empire. Similar representations can be seen in Michael Rysbrack’s portrayals of George I and George II, suggesting that whilst a shift to the antique was certainly a result of the so-called ‘Greek revival’ that gained popularity at the turn of the century, Carew was also following an established tradition of Royal representation. Portrait busts such as this one became fashionable and a must-have in the decoration of Georgian aristocratic interiors, especially if, as in the present case, they were carved in marble, a material closely linked to the revival of antiquity. Several further likenesses of King George III in ‘Roman costume’ exist, the most notable being that of Carew’s tutor and employer, Westmacott, who also realised an equestrian monument of the King, found in Liverpool’s London Road, inspired by the ancient Marcus Aurelius in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.

RELATED LITERATURE
B. Haydon, The Diary of Benjamin Robert Haydon, edited by W. B. Pope, Vol. III (1825-1832), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963