John Angel

Born 1 November 1881
Died 16 October 1960

Active: 1901 - 1960

Country of birth: England

Country of death: United States

Sculptor, architectural and ecclesiastical sculptor, medallist, lecturer

Born in Newton Abbot, Devon. He was the son of Samuel Angel (1849-1938, born in Ashburton, Devon), tailor. John served a five-year apprenticeship (from 14 June 1897 to 1 November 1902) as a carver with the Exeter firm of J. Wippell Co, church and school furnishers then under the ownership of Henry Hugh Wippell (1842-1912). John studied at Exeter College of Art, then South London Technical School of Art (Lambeth) and finally at the Royal Academy Schools, London from 1907-12. Angel won several prizes at the RA Schools and then travelled in Italy during 1912. For four years he worked as an assistant to Sir George Frampton. Angel's works from this date include: the Exeter and Bridgwater War Memorials; and a statue of St George at Rotherham. A number of statuettes and busts are located in various collections, including in Glasgow and the Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. These include busts of Sir John Biles and Sir Philip Watts.

In 1925 Angel emigrated to the USA where he had a lengthy and successful career principally as a sculptor of ecclesiastical carvings and sculptures. However he did not, at least initially, sever his connections in the UK. In 1930 Angel exhibited a statuette group in bronze of a mother and child called 'Achilles and Thetis' at the Leicester Galleries. He wrote to the gallery on 5 March 1930 to request the return of the sculpture, also mentioning that he was ordering more casts.

Angel's numerous commissions in the USA include: most of the statuary for the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York (Ralph Adams Cram Architect); statuary on the Altar, a life-size marble statue of Saint Patrick in the choir, and the tympanum and six figures for the bronze doors of the Central Portal, West front for St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City; St Paul at Concord, NH; Last Supper group in marble for East Liberty Church, Pittsburgh; Crucifixion group, St Louis, Mo.; Majestas group, the Baptism of Christ, and The Annunciation at Princeton University Chapel; marble panel of Christ in the Temple, St Paul’s School, Concord, NH; marble panel of the Madonna and Child, Chatham Hall School, Chatham, Va; bronze statue of Christ the Teacher for Catholic Central High School, Braintree, Mass; statuary for the reredos, St John’s Church, Youngstown, Ohio; seven tympana for the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC; and four twelve-foot marble statues of the Apostles for the Cathedral of St Paul, St Paul, Minnesota.

Angel also made a number of statues and busts including William M. Rice, Rice Institute, Texas; Francis Vigo, (granite) at Vincennes, Ind.; Alexander Hamilton, Chicago; Stephen Fuller Austin, (bronze) for Austin, Tex., and a bust of Judge John Munro Woolsey, Phillips Acadamy, Andover, Mass. Angel also designed the William Edward Parsons Memorial Medal for Yale University and the 1956 medal for the Medallic Art Society.

He received a number of distinguished awards and honours, among them Hon. LittD, Columbia University (1936) and Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters (1956). Angel was a member of the Mediaeval Academy of America, the Architectural League, the National Sculpture Society of America, and the National Academy of Design. In 1942 Angel married Elizabeth Day Seymour daughter of Professor Thomas Day Seymour, Yale University. They lived in Fairfield, Connecticut where Angel died in 1960.

This entry includes information about Angel's apprenticeship and career as a sculptor submitted by Carol Morris. The information about exhibiting a work at the Leicester Galleries in 1930 was submitted by Dr. Evelyn Silber based on information in the Ernest Brown & Phillips Archive (private).

Citing this record

'John Angel', 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_1206480763, accessed 31 Mar 2023]