John Deare

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Venus Reclining on a Sea Monster with Cupid and a Putto at the Getty

John Deare (26 October 1759, Liverpool – 17 August 1798, Rome) was a British neo-classical sculptor. His nephew Joseph (1803–1835) was also a sculptor.

Life

Born to a jeweller in Liverpool, John Deare enrolled at the

Royal Academy Schools in 1777, where he won a gold medal for a Miltonic subject (1780). Meanwhile he also served an apprenticeship to the London carver Thomas Carter from 1776 to 1783, before setting up on his own. He continued to produce work for his old master as well as for John Bacon and John Cheere. Independent commissions included the reliefs The War of Jupiter and the Titans in plaster for Whitton Park's pediment and The Good Samaritan (post-1782) for the Liverpool Dispensary. Deare was himself admired by his contemporaries, particularly by Joseph Nollekens. However, his only surviving early works are those he produced to be made in ceramic by Derby for clocks by Benjamin Vulliamy.[1][2]

The Royal Academy gave him a pension for a three-year stay in Rome (on the condition he sent back a work to the RA's annual exhibition). Starting in 1785, he drew the classical sculpture collections at (among others) the

Canova
, all four of whom also bought works by Deare.

After his pension expired he found that he was so in demand in Rome that he was able to settle there and finance himself through carving copies of classical sculptures for British

Prince of Wales (employing Joseph Gandy and other architects for the purpose).[1]

By his death in Rome in 1798 Deare had married an Italian woman, who he left with their children as a widow and for whose benefit Deare's friends such as Vincenzo Pacetti and Christopher Hewetson posthumously disposed of his studio contents. There are conflicting accounts of how he died. One story says that after sleeping on a block of marble hoping for inspiration he caught a chill and died. Another says that was thrown into a dungeon by a jealous French officer who had amorous intent towards his wife.[2] Three days after his death he was buried in Rome's Protestant Cemetery.[2]

Works

  • The Judgement of Jupiter
  • Edward and Eleanor (1786, marble version of 1790 for Sir Corbet Corbet now in a private collection).
  • Marine Venus, marble relief, purchased in 1787 by Sir Cecil Bisshop for
    Mannerist
    sculpture
  • Cupid and Psyche, marble (1791) for
    Thomas Hope
    (plaster version, Lyons House, co. Kildare)
  • The Landing of Julius Caesar in Britain (1791–4; V&A Museum, formerly Stoke Park Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire), the subject chosen by its commissioner John Penn
  • Portrait bust of John Penn (Eton College).

Classical copies

  • Apollo Belvedere, commissioned in 1792 for Attingham by Lord Berwick
  • Faun with a Kid (Prado Museum, Madrid), acquired by Lord Cloncurry (private collection)
  • Bust of Ariadne (c.1789, now in the Capitoline Museum, Rome), for John Latouche

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7394. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^
    OCLC 504200973
    .

External links
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