L. F. ROUBILIAC,

born at Lyons in France, became a formidable rival to Rysbrach, and latterly was more em8. Dr. Radcliffe. Library, Oxford.

9. Admiral Vernon, Figure of Britannia and Victory. Westminster Abbey.

10. John, Duke of Marlborough. Blenheim.

11. George II. Court of Greenwich Hospital.

12. Charles Duke of Somerset, and his Duchess. Salisbury

Cathedral.

13. Lady Besborough. Derby.

14. Lady Folkstone. Coleshill, Berks.

15. Sir Hans Sloane. For his garden at Chelsea.

16. Hercules. At Stourhead.

17. Flora. At Ditto.

18. William III. Equestrian. Bristol.

19. Charles I. Bust from Vandyck's portraits, and a cast from that by Bernini. For the late G. A. Selwyn.

20. John, Duke of Marlborough and his Duchess. Blenheim. 21. Palladio, Inigo Jones, and Fiamingo. Chiswick. 22. Queen Anne, as a portrait. Blenheim.

Numerous busts.-Some of them of great truth of character, and others of secondary merit, but all upon the French model of sculpture.

No better reason can probably be given for the omission, excepting incidentally, of the name of PETER SCHEEMAKERS, a sculptor of considerable merit in his day, than a deficiency of any information, concerning his personal history. The Editor's inquiries have not met with greater success. Certain it is, that at whatever period of his life he arrived, before 1740, he remained long, and found very considerable employment, in this country. A list therefore of his best known works, may not be unacceptable. He cannot be ranked, either with Rysbrach or Roubiliac, yet had interest enough in the then AngloGerman Court, to obtain at least equal encouragement. He

ployed. He had little business till Sir Edward Walpole* recommended him to execute half the

greatly promoted the fashion of busts, and chiefly excelled in them; both as applied to sepulchral monuments, or to ornament libraries The preference which has been shewn to these, above historical composition, originated in the same individual feeling which delights in portrait.

Works by Scheemakers.

1. Monument of Shakespeare, (W. Kent, inv.) Westminster Abbey.

2. Sheffylde, Duke of Bucks, (Figure of Time) Ditto. 3. Sir Charles Watson, (J. Stuart, inv.)

Ditto.

4. First and second Dukes of Ancaster, (Roman figures sitting) Edenham, Lincolnshire

5 Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. Wimpole, Cambridgeshire. 6. Duke of Kent, his wives and daughters, a group of figures in white marble, 1740. Fletton, Bedfordshire.

7. J. Knight, Esq. Gosfield, Essex.

8. Henry Petty, Earl of Shelburne. Wycomb, Bucks. 9. Sir Charles Wager. Figures. Westminster Abbey.

10. Duchess of Buckingham. Ditto.

11. Montague Gerrard Drake. Figure on a sarcophagus.

Busts.

Amersham, Bucks.

1. Dr. Mead. Westminster Abbey.

2. Dryden. Ditto.

3. Dr. Friend.

Ditto.

Among his very numerous performances of this kind, others may doubtless be found of equal merit, for likeness and workmanship. He was succeeded in his profession by his son, Thomas Scheemakers, who was buried at St. Pancras in 1808.]

* [Sir J. Reynolds related an anecdote of Roubiliac, whom he well knew, extremely honorable, as an instance of moral feeling. Very soon after he arrived in England, and was then working as journeyman to Carter, a maker of monuments;

busts at Trinity-college, Dublin; and by the same patron's interest he was employed on the monument of the general, John Duke of Argyle, in Westminster-Abbey, on which the statue of Eloquence is very masterly and graceful. His statue of Handel, in the garden at Vauxhall, fixed Roubiliac's fame.* Two of his principal works are the monuments of the late Duke and Duchess of Montagu in Northamptonshire, well performed

having spent an evening at Vauxhall, on his return he picked up a pocket book, which he found to inclose several Bank notes of value. He immediately advertised the circumstance; and a gentleman of fashion (Sir Edward Walpole,) claimed the pocket book. Justly appreciating and remunerating the integrity of the poor young man, and the specimens of his skill and talent which he exhibited, he promised to patronise him through life; and he faithfully performed that promise. Northcote, v. i. p. 49.]

[To what circumstance shall we attribute the total omission of the names of Rysbrach and Roubiliac in D'Argenville's Vies des fameux Sculpteurs, (8vo. 1787, 2 tom.) and by their other biographers, of artists, excepting, that although not Englishmen, they were exclusively employed in England?In fact, they performed nothing for the glory of France.

A comparison will afford sufficient evidence, that Rysbrach had the works of Le Moyne, constantly, as prototypes of his own compositions. His personifications of Religion and the Christian virtues, the pyramids and bas-reliefs are of the French school. But Roubiliac imitated these theatric allegories still more closely; and with respect to the skeleton figure of Death, partly enveloped in drapery, and in action, was indebted to René-Michel Slodtz, who introduced such a one (probably an innovation) in a large group, in the church of St. Sulpice, at Paris, in 1750.]

VOL. IV.

and magnificent, but wanting simplicity. His statue of George I. in the senate house at Cambridge is well executed, and so is that of their Chancellor Charles Duke of Somerset, except that it is in a Vandyck dress-which might not be the fault of the sculptor. His statue of Sir Isaac Newton in the chapel of Trinity-College is the best of the three, except that the air is a little too pert for so grave a man. This able artist had a turn to poetry, and wrote satires in French verse.* He died January 11, 1762, and was buried in the parish of St. Martin's, where he lived. Mr. Scott of Crown-court, Westminster, had a sketch of Roubiliac's head in oil by himself, which he painted a little before his death.†

[In 1761, the year only previous to his death, Roubiliac wrote some lines in favour of English artists, which were placed in the Exhibition Room, in Spring Gardens; and afterwards published in the St. James's Chronicle.

"Pretendu Connoisseur qui sur l'Antique glose, &c.

Quittez ce ton pedant, ce mepris affecté,

Pour tout ce que le temps n'a pas encore gaté―

Vois ce Salon, et tu perdras,

Cette prevention injuste.

Et bien etonné conviendras,

Qu'il ne faut pas qu'un Mecenas,

Pour revoir Le Siecle d'Auguste."]

+ [The best Works of Roubiliac.

1. Statue of Handel for Vauxhall Gardens.

2. George I. Senate House, Cambridge.

3. Charles Duke of Somerset in a Vandyck habit. Ditto.