John Edward Carew

John Edward Carew (c.1785-1 December 1868) was a notable Irish sculptor during the 19th century.

Thought to be the son of a local stonecutter, Carew was born in Tramore, and studied art in Dublin. Around 1809, he came to London to work for Sir Richard Westmacott.

He worked exclusively for the 3rd Earl of Egremont at Petworth House in the 1820s and 1830s (also producing a monument to the Earl's Percy ancestors in the baptistery of St Mary's, Petworth), and made some sculpture for the royal family, including two chimney pieces for Buckingham Palace. His most prominent work is the "Death of Nelson" - one of the four bronze panels on the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. He also produced the Dick Whittington sculpture (c.1844) on the Threadneedle Street side of the Royal Exchange.

Other portrait statues by Carew include:
*William Huskisson in Chichester [ [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/place/chichester.htm Chichester Cathedral ] ]
*Henry Grattan in St Stephen’s Hall, Houses of Parliament
*Edmund Kean for the Drury Lane Theatre.

Church work includes:
*memorial to Edward Woods, Chichester Cathedral [ [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/place/chichester.htm Chichester Cathedral ] ]
*memorial to Michael Nugent in Kensal Green Cemetery
*monument with figures to Sir Thomas Caryll, Shipley Church, Sussex (1831) ['Shipley: Church', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2: Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) including Horsham (1986), pp. 123-25. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=18343. Date accessed: 28 October 2006]
*"Baptism of Christ" for church of St John the Baptist, Brighton (1835) [ [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=4009&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=&imageUID=72961&=&JS=True ViewFinder - Image Details ] ]
*reredos in the Chapel of the Assumption, Warwick St, London ['Golden Square Area: Warwick Street', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 167-73. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41468. Date accessed: 13 November 2006.]
*four works - statue of St. John the Baptist, the Immaculate Conception, St Francis of Assisi and St. Patrick - in Basilica of St. John the Baptist, St. John's, Newfoundland [ [http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/rhs/rs_listing/102.html St. John's: Basilica of John the Baptist ] ]

From about 1848, Carew's eyesight began to fail and he no longer exhibited his work. Carew was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

References