Henry Weekes RA
Born 14 January 1807
Died 28 May 1877
Active: 1828 - 1877
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor
Born in Parish of St Andrew, Canterbury, Kent. He was the son of Capon Weekes, a bank clerk. Henry was a pupil of William Behnes and then studied at the Royal Academy Schools c.1823-6. Weekes worked for Francis Legatt Chantrey from the end of his pupillage with Behnes in 1827 until the older artist's death in 1841. Chantrey provided a small studio and accommodation in Pimlico near his own studio and later bequeathed £1,000 to the younger sculptor. His son Henry Weekes Jnr. was a painter (exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1851-84) and another son John Ernest Weekes published a memoir of his father. Died at 96 Buckingham Palace Road, London.
Wealth at death: £30,000 0s. 0d.
Probate date: January 1878
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Mary Woolstonecraft (Mrs Godwin)
The late Dean (Buckland) of Westminster
Design for a statue of the late Sir Robert Peel
Marble bust, posthumous, of Henry B. H. Beaufoy, Esq., FRS
Marble bust, posthumous, of Mrs Charles Mears
p. 58
Marble bust, posthumous, of Georgina, daughter of Duncan C. Peel, Esq., of New York
p.58
Marble statue (posthumous) of the infant son of George Bradley, Esq.
William Harvey
1860 (Circa)
Bust of an African Princess
1870 (Presumed)
Locations
Address 129 Prince of Wales Road Haverstock Hill London | View on map
1870 (Presumed)
Address 29 Lower Belgrave Place Pimlico London | View on map
1846 - 1855
At 26 Lower Belgrave Place from 1837-44
Address 1 Eccleston Street South Pimlico London | View on map
1855 - 1868
Address Heather Lea Villa Burstow | View on map
1861
Address 2 Eccleston Street Pimlico London | View on map
1874 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The International Exhibition, London, 1862
Multiple works
Exhibited at Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, at the Rooms of the Society, New Street (Royal Birmingham Society of Artists), 1870
'Bust of an African Princess'
Exhibited at Yorkshire Fine Art Society, Autumn Exhibition, 1880
'The Sleeping Child'
Exhibited at Leeds Mechanics' Institution, Yorkshire Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures, Leeds, 1875
'Bust of T. R. Harding'
Exhibited at Annual Exhibition of the Academy of Arts (Leeds), 1853
'Sleeping Child'
Exhibited at Royal Manchester Institution, Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, 1874
'True Friends'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fourth, 1852
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fifth, 1853
p. 51
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
p.51
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1828 - 1877
Exhibited 47 times (25 times from 1851), on average exhibited two to three works per year, about 122 works in all
Exhibition committee member for The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Ninety-Sixth, 1864
1864 (Presumed)
Appointed to the 'committee of arrangement' for sculpture. See Royal Academy, 'Annual Report', 1865, p. 21.
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected ARA Royal Academy of Arts
3 November 1851 - 3 March 1863
Was elected RA in 1863.
Elected RA Royal Academy of Arts
3 March 1863 - 15 May 1877
Retired in 1877.
Honorary treasurer of Institute of British Sculptors
1861 (Circa)
Lectured at Royal Academy Schools
14 February 1869 - 17 February 1876
Delivered a course of six lectures annually between February and March, or January and February. See Royal Academy 'Annual Reports'.
Member of Leeds Academy of Arts
Weekes was an honorary member
Member of Institute of British Sculptors
1852 - 1863 (Circa)
Founder member. Present at a meeting in Sackville Street on 27 January 1863
Member of council Royal Academy of Arts
1864 - 1873
Appointed as a Member of the Council from 1864 to 1865, and again from 1872 to 1873. See Royal Academy 'Annual Reports'.
Professor of sculpture at Royal Academy of Arts
1868 - 1876
See Popp and Valentine, 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), p. 126.
Professor of sculpture at Royal Academy Schools
2 June 1868 - 1876
See Popp and Valentine, 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), p. 126, and the Royal Academy 'Annual Report', (1869), p. 22.
Note that in 1873 Weekes was re-elected as Professor of Sculpture, and was the only candidate for the post. See Royal Academy 'Annual Report 1873', (1876), p. 8.
Studied at Royal Academy Schools
18 November 1823
Won the Royal Academy Schools Silver Medal in 1826. Elected A.R.A. in 1851. See Popp and Valentine, 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), p. 126.
Studied at Royal Academy Schools
18 November 1923
Weekes won the Royal Academy Schools Silver Medal in 1826. See Popp and Valentine, 'Royal Academy of Arts Directory of Membership', (1996), p. 126.
Visitor at Royal Academy Schools
1864 - 1875
Listed as a visitor in sculpture to the Life School. See the Royal Academy 'Annual Reports'.
Personal and Professional Connections
Apprenticed to William Behnes
1822 - 1827
Assistant to Francis Legatt Chantrey
1827 (Circa) - 1841
Weekes worked for Chantrey from the end of his pupillage with Behnes until his employer's death. Chantrey provided Weekes with accommodation and a small studio near his own in Pimlico. At Chantrey's death, he bequeathed £1,000 to the younger artist who completed some unfinished works. (Roscoe, 2009, p. 1341).
Employed as studio assistant Neville Northey Burnard
1837 (Circa)
Employed as studio assistant Robert Glassby Snr
1864 (Circa)
Nominator of William Frederick Woodington Snr.
26 November 1866
For membership of RA
Nominator of Charles Bell Birch
6 July 1872
Nominator of Timothy Butler
28 June 1875
Studio assistant to Francis Legatt Chantrey
1827
At Chantrey's request, Weekes took over his employer's studio at his death and completed his unfinished sculptures, including the equestrian bronze statue of the duke of Wellington (1841–4, Royal Exchange) for the City of London. [see ODNB]
Descriptions of Practice
Listed under Sculptors Post Office London Directory, 1851 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
Listed under Sculptors Post Office London Directory, 1860 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851
'Sculptor' also John Pauley (born c.1794, Canterbury) 'Sculptor's Labourer'
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861
'Sculptor'
Sources
A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851
2009
pp. 1340-6
Annual Report from the Council of The Royal Academy to the General Assembly of Academicians 1863, 1864 Royal Academy Annual Reports
1864
pp. 20, 32
Annual Report from the Council of The Royal Academy to the General Assembly of Academicians 1864, 1865 Royal Academy Annual Reports
1865
pp. 21-22.
Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition of the Academy of Arts, 8 Bond Street, Leeds, 1853
1853 (Presumed)
Cat. No. 529, 549, pp. 4, 23, 24, 31
Catalogue of the Autumn Exhibition (Yorkshire Fine Art Society, Leeds) 1880
1880
Name given as 'W. Weekes, R.A.', Cat. No. 550, p. 57
Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1874
1874
Cat. Nos. 660, 690, 695, pp. 61, 63, 78
Catalogue of the Yorkshire Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures, Leeds, 1875
1875
Cat. No. F16a, p. 98
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851
2004
Class: HO107; Piece: 1478; Folio: 254; Page: 44; GSU roll: 87801
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861
2004
Class: RG 9; Piece: 444; Folio: 17; Page: 10; GSU roll: 542639
International exhibition 1862, official catalogue, fine art department
1862
List of Members: Institute of British Sculptors (or Sculptor's Institute)
2008 (Circa)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Timothy Stevens, ‘Weekes, Henry (1807–1877)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28969, accessed 2 Dec 2009]
Oxford Natural History Museum: the Statues in the Court
2008
p. 3
Post Office London Directory, 1851 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1851
p. 1365
Post Office London Directory, 1860 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1860
p. 1803
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, 1866-1906
1906
See entries for 1866, 1872, 1875.
Rules of the Institute of Sculptors
1861
p. iv
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fifth, 1853
1853
p. 51
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fourth, 1852
1852
p.67
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
1855
p.51
Citing this record
'Henry Weekes RA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib2_1202173116, accessed 26 Mar 2023]
