“Monument to Andrew Newton” by Richard Westmacott, Jr

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Monument to Andrew Newton

Richard Westmacott, Sr (1747-1808)

Marble

Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire

Standing monument to Andrew Newton in the south transept. Newton was the philanthropist who founded Newton's College in the Cathedral Close. This is rather a typical memorial for its time, because of the classical robes and the weeping woman draped over the stele. The children represent those whom Newton helped: the "college" was originally intended as housing for widows and orphaned children of clergyman. (Commentary continues below.)

Photographs and text by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2013.

The photographs are reproduced here” by kind permission of the Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral. Click on the images for larger pictures.

Richard Westmacott the elder is said to have been known mainly for his chimney-pieces (Bosco), although there are two busts by him nearby, of Dr Johnson and David Garrick, both natives of Lichfield. This more elaborate monument has been criticised for being a collection of rather disparate figures rather than a unified tableau (see Noszlopy and Waterhouse 235).

The children are certainly much more appealing than either the stiff female figure on the right, or the conventional mourner. A "devoted family man," Westmacott the elder apparently "often used his own children as models" (Scaife 12). However, neither of these two little ones could have possibly been modelled on his more famous sculptor son Richard (1775-1856), who, as the eldest of his thirteen children, was already living independently in London” by this time (see Boase).

Related Material

Bibliography

Bosco, Marie. "Westmacott, Sir Richard (1775-1856)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Web. 1 May 2013.

Noszlopy, George T., and Fiona Waterhouse. Public Sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005. Print.

Pevsner, Nikolaus. The Buildings of England: Staffordshire. London: Penguin, 1974. Print.

Scaife, Patricia. The Carvings of Lichfield Cathedral. Much Wenlock, Shropshire: R. J. L. Smith, 2010. Print.

Last modified 2 May 2012