john bacon the younger·1740 - 1799

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= link to further material not in books ========================= ---------- section b ---------- bacon, john [BWM] baily, edward hodges [BWM] baker, sir herbert [Rem] behnes, william [BWM] bell, john [BWM] belsky, franta [BWM] binyon, laurence [Rem] blomfield, sir reginald [Rem] blunden, edmund [Rem] boehm, sir edgar [BWM] brock, sir thomas [BWM] butler, james [BWM] burdett-coutts, william [Rem] burnet, sir john james [Rem] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- chantrey, sir francis [BWM] churchill, sir winston [Rem] cockerell, professor charles [BWM] comper, sir ninian [BWM] ========================= ---------- section d ---------- derwent wood, professor francis [Rem] dick, sir william reid [BWM] drury, alfred [BWM] ========================= ---------- section e ---------- epstein, sir jacob [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- flaxman, professor john [BWM] frampton, sir george [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- gill, eric [BWM] gleichen, count victor [BWM] goscombe john, sir william [BWM] gotto, captain basil [BWM] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- haig, field marshall earl douglas [Rem] hepworth, philip [Rem] holden, charles [Rem] hutton, john [Rem] ========================= ---------- section j ---------- jackson, philip [BWM] jagger, charles sargeant [Rem] jones, captain adrian [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- kennington, eric [BWM] kenyon, colonel sir frederic [Rem] kipling, joseph rudyard [Rem] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lafontaine, colonel cart de [Rem] lantéri, professor édouard [BWM] ledward, professor gilbert [BWM] lewis, sir robert [Rem] lloyd george, earl dwyfor - om [Rem] lorimer, sir robert [Rem] lutyens, sir edwin - om [Rem] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- mackenall, sir bertram [BWM] mallock, vivien [BWM] marochetti, baron carlo [BWM] marsh, sir edward howard [Rem] maufe, sir edward [Rem] mcmillan, william [BWM] melchett, lord [Rem] millington, major tasman [Rem] mills, john w [BWM] mond, sir alfred [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nash, john [BWM] nightingale, florence - om [Rem] ========================= ---------- section 0 ---------- orpen, sir william [Rem] owen, wilfred [Rem] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- pegram, henry alfred [BWM] poole, henry [Rem] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- reid dick, sir william [BWM] roberts-jones, ivor [BWM] rosenburg, isaac [Rem] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sassoon, siegfried [Rem] shepheard, sir peter [Rem] singer sargent, john [Rem] soissons, louis de [Rem] spencer, sir stanley [BWM] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- thornycroft, sir (william) hamo [BWM] toft, albert [BWM] turner, alfred [BWM] tweed, john [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wade, george [BWM] ware, major general sir fabian [Rem] webb, sir aston [BWM] westmacott, sir richard [BWM] wheeler, sir charles [BWM] winter, faith [BWM] wood, francis derwent [BWM] worthington, sir hubert [Rem]

John Bacon was born at Southwark in South London on 24 November 1740. He was the son of a Somerset cloth-weaver. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a Lambeth manufacturer of porcelain, where he was at first engaged in painting ornamental pieces of china and later promoted to the position of modeller. His observation of the models executed by different sculptors of eminence, which were sent to be fired at an adjoining pottery, determined the direction of his genius; he imitated them with so much success that in 1758 a small figure of Peace sent by him to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts received a prize, and the highest premiums given by the Society were awarded to Bacon nine times between the years 1763 and 1776.

“Bacon retained the King's favour throughout his life, although he was often criticised for his ignorance of the classic style”

Bacon first attempted working in marble in 1763 and during the course of his early efforts in this art was led to improve the method of transferring the form of the model to the marble ‘getting out the points' by the invention of a more perfect instrument for the purpose. This instrument took exact measurements in every direction, was contained in a small compass, and could be used on either the model or the marble.

In 1769 he was awarded the Royal Academy's first Gold Medal for Sculpture for his bas-relief The Escape of Aeneas from Troy. In 1770 he exhibited his figure of Mars, which gained him the Gold Medal of the Society of Arts and election as ARA. As a consequence of this success, he was engaged to execute a portrait bust of King George III, originally intended for Christ Church, Oxford. It was exhibited at the RA in 1774 and pleased His Majesty so much, it may be found at Windsor Castle. In consequence, Bacon retained the King's favour throughout his life, although he was often criticised for his ignorance of the classic style. This charge he refuted with his head of Jupiter Tonans, and many of his figures were in perfect classical taste.

Bacon was a prolific sculptor and examples of his art may be seen in St Paul's Cathedral, London, Christ Church Cathedral and Pembroke College, Oxford, Bath Abbey and Westminster Abbey. Bacon's grand marble Monument to Sir William Blackstone (1784) may be found at All Soul's College, Oxford. Bacon's statue Dr Samuel Johnson (1796) may be found in St Paul's Cathedral. His dramatic white marble Monument to General Sir John Moore in St Paul's Cathedral, London depicts Moore's corpse being lowered into his grave by two allegorical figures. William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778) was twice Prime Minister and is buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. His large white marble monument was sculpted by Bacon and stands nearly 33 feet high. It cost more than £6,000. At the base, sits Britannia holding her trident, and below her are the reclining figures of Ocean (Neptune) with a dolphin and the female figure of Earth, with a globe, fruit and flowers. Above, on a sarcophagus, sit the figures of Prudence and Fortitude. At the very top, in a niche, is the standing figure of Chatham with arm outstretched delivering an oration. In the Church of St Mary at Paddington Green he sculpted the Wall Monument to General Charles Crosbie (1807). Bacon sculpted the portrait statue Charles, Marquess Cornwallis for the directors of the HEIC in 1793 (now in the FCO, Whitehall). A copy stands in the East Quadrangle of the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta.

For a fee of 5,000 guineas, he also sculpted the life-sized marble statue of Cornwallis which now stands in gardens of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Mumbai - minus its head and right arm, which were removed by the locals during civil unrest in 1965. Bacon competed against Rossi and won the commission for the marble portrait statue Richard, Marquess Wellesley, Earl of Mornington. It was exhibited at the RA in 1808 and shipped to Calcutta. It may be seen in the collection of the Victoria Memorial, Calcutta.

He was subsequently to sculpt the marble portrait statue of Wellesley for Mumbai, most of the work apparently being carried out by Bacon's business partner Samuel Manning the Elder. It having been shifted a number of times and decapitated in 1965, it may now be found in the grounds of the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai. Bacon died on 4 August 1799 and was buried at Mr Whitfield's Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road, London.

A medal by J S Wyon was commissioned in 1864 by the Art Union of London. It depicts a bust of Bacon on the obverse and his statue of Dr Johnson in St Paul's on the reverse.