Bath, Art and Architecture: Peter Scheemakers by Hoare of Bath

Friday, 1 September 2023

Peter Scheemakers by Hoare of Bath

Peter Scheemakers (1691 - 1781).

by William Hoare of Bath (1707 - 92).

Image from the Paul Mellon Photographic Archive.

No source given.

https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/collections

An invaluable source of images of 18th Century English Paintings and Sculpture.

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Etching.

With ink inscription along bottom in the hand of Horace Walpole "Mr Peter Scheemakers Statuary / Wm Hoare ft. aqua forti"

Height: 190 millimetres, Width: 157 millimetres.

Accompanied by a cutting from a newspaper "Mr Peter Scheemakers, the Statuary, is removed from Old Palace-Yard to Vine-street, Picadilly" with on the backing sheet in a contemporary hand the date 1741.

British Museum

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https://historyofbath.org/images/BathHistory/Vol%2001%20-%2004.%20Newby%20-%20The%20Hoares%20of%20Bath.pdf

In 1728 the partners Schemakers and Delvaux auctioned their stock, announcing that they were going to Rome 'to improve their studies' (Vertue, Note books, 3.36). Travelling with them was William Hoare, who later drew Scheemakers's profile portrait in formal dress; an etching exists in the British Museum, London.

William Hoare grew up in Suffolk and Berkshire before moving to London to join the studio of Italian painter Giuseppe Grisoni (1699 – 1769). Hoare accompanied his master when he returned to Italy in 1728. He spent ten years working in the studio of the history painter Francesco Imperiali (1679 – 1740) in Rome.

William Hoare arrived in Bath in 1738 and is thought to have lived in a house on the east side of Queen Square, diagonally opposite John Wood, who lived at No. 9 on the south side. By 1763 he had moved up to Edgar Buildings and had a studio and ‘picture room’ there until his death in 1792

https://historyofbath.org/images/documents/John%20Wood%2011%20%20The%20Portrait%20of%20John%20Wood%20that%20Never%20Was.pdf

Bath Chronicle - 6 November 1783 - Art: Bath Academy - meeting of 4 Nov at the Three Tuns Tavern, Stall St, Bath unanimously thanked John Palmer, esq., - Hoare, esq., George James, esq., & Mr Ch. Harris, statuary, London.

This note refers to William Hoare but is interesting from the point of view that Charles Harris Statuary (of the Strand, London) was involved in an Academy at Bath.

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Prince Hoare (1711 -69) the sculptor and brother of William Hoare was a pupil assistant of Peter Scheemakers, he was active in Bath from 1749, but married an heiress Mary Coulthurst with£6,000 and (I believe) much of the sculpture attributed to him was made by his assistant Plura.

For Hoare's bust and statue of Beau Nash see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/beau-nash-statue-in-pump-rooms-bath-by.html

For a brief overview of 18th Century Bath Sculptors see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/08/18th-to-mid-19th-century-sculpture-in.html

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Peter Scheemakers.

In an imaginary studio with his bust of William Harvey carved for Richard Meade, Inigo Jones and the bust of a Roman.

Francis Hayman (1708 - 76).

1739.

oil on canvas

56 x 43 cms

He is holding the engraving of Harvey by Jacobus Houbraken (1698 - 1780) after the original by Willem van Bemmel (1630 - 1708) for Birch's Heads of 1739.

Image courtesy Royal College of Surgeons.

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The Marble bust of Harvey by Scheemakers

Royal College of Physicians

Photographed by the author October 2016.

I am very grateful to all the staff at the Royal College for allowing myself and Peter Hone to visit the college and to making our visit such a delight.

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/bust-of-william-harvey-scheemakers.html

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William Harvey

by Jacobus Houbraken.

A drawing of the human arterial system in lower left

Lettered with name of sitter on oval, and in lower margin, "In the collection of Dr Mead / Bemmel pinx / J. Houbraken sculps. Amst. 1739 / Impensis J & P Knapton Londini. 1739".

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http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/busts-of-shakespeare-by-scheemakers-and.html

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/bust-of-william-harvey-scheemakers.html

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Peter Scheemakers.

1779.