BACON

BACON, John, academician, born 24th November 1740, who may be considered as the founder of the British school of sculpture, and whose works are still its greatest boast, was the son of Thomas Bacon, cloth-worker in Southwark, whose forefathers possessed a considerable estate in Somersetshire.

At the age of fourteen he was bound apprentice in Mr Crisp's manufactory of porcelain at Lambeth, where he was at first employed in painting the small ornamental pieces of china, but soon attained the distinction of being modeller to the work. The produce of his labour was devoted by him, from his earliest years, towards the support of his parents. While thus engaged, he had an opportunity of seeing the models executed by different sculptors of eminence, which were sent to be burned at an adjoining pottery. An observation of these productions appears to have immediately determined the direction of his genius; and his progress in the imitation of them was no less rapid than his propensity to the pursuit was

strong. His ardour and unremitting diligence are best proved by the fact, that the highest premiums given by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in those particular classes in which he was a competitor, were adjudged to him nine times between the years 1763 and 1776. During his apprenticeship he likewise formed the design of working statues in artificial stone, which he afterwards carried to perfection.

Mr Bacon first attempted working in marble about the year 1763, and, during the course of his early efforts in this art, was led, by the resources of his genius, to improve the method of transferring the form of the model to the marble (technically called getting out the points), by the invention of a more perfect instrument for this purpose, and which has since been adopted by many sculptors both in this and other countries.¹ The advantages which this instrument possesses above those formerly employed are, its greater certainty and exactness, that it takes a correct measurement in every direction, is contained in so small a compass as not to encumber the workman, and is transferable either to the model or the marble, as may be required, without the necessity of a separate instrument for each.

In the year 1769 the first gold medal given by the Royal Academy was adjudged to Bacon, and in 1770 he was associated by that body. His first work in sculpture was a bust of his majesty George III., intended for Christ Church College. It is said, that of sixteen different competitions in which he engaged with other artists, he was unsuccessful in one case only. His knowledge of the antique style was for a time called in question; and on occasion of the doubts which were raised on this point, he is reported to have modelled his head of Jupiter Tonans, as the most satisfactory method of repelling the charge. The objection probably originated from the circumstance, that in some of his principal works the figures were represented in the costume of modern times, of which his statue of Justice Blackstone at All Souls College, Oxford, and that of Howard in St Paul's Cathedral, are remarkable examples. But his genius was not subjected to the trammels of this or of any one style exclusively. Many of his emblematical figures are designed after the purest models, and in a taste altogether classical. Among several of this character, the monument to Mrs Draper, in the cathedral of Bristol, is exquisitely simple. In his later productions, likewise, particularly those of a monumental kind, he introduced frequent examples of the ancient style; as in the well-known monument to the earl of Chatham in Westminster Abbey, that to Lord Robert Manners, and others which might be mentioned. "Another marble, scarcely finished at the time of his death," says Dallaway, in his Anecdotes of the Arts in England, "will secure him a lasting fame for originality and classical taste. It is the cenotaph lately erected in Westminster Abbey to the poet Mason. A muse, holding his profile on a medallion, reclines on an antique altar, on which are sculptured, in relief, a lyre, the tragic masque and laurel wreath; all of the most correct form, as seen on ancient sarcophagi of the pure ages."

On the 4th of August 1799 Mr Bacon was suddenly attacked with an inflammation of the bowels, which occasioned his death in little more than two days. He died in his 59th year, leaving a widow, his second wife, and a family of six sons and three daughters.

Of his merit as a statuary, the universal and established reputation of his works has afforded the decisive proof. "The works of Bacon, Bankes, Nollekins, Wilton, and

Flaxman," says Dallaway, and to these might now perhaps be added other names of nearly equal promise, "will rescue the present age from being totally indebted to foreigners for perfection in statuary." The various productions of this artist which adorn St Paul's Cathedral, Christ Church and Pembroke Colleges, Oxford, the Abbey Church at Bath, and Bristol Cathedral, give ample testimony to his powers; above all, those great and prominent works among the monuments in Westminster Abbey.

But it was not as an artist only that Mr Bacon was esteemed; he was no less distinguished by the firmness of his mind, and the uprightness of his private character. His principles were deeply founded, and the virtues which he strove to attain were measured by a standard more unbending than the mere dictates of feeling or of a cultivated taste. He was an avowed believer in the truths of the Christian religion; and in him this belief exhibited its corresponding effects, by producing a consistent influence upon his whole character and conduct. In this manner, the strength of his principles, and the reality of his conviction, were daily manifested throughout his life, than which, no test of sincerity is more unequivocal, no instruction more useful, and no recommendation more persuasive.

Mr Bacon was remarkable for the simplicity of his manners, and was in all things devoid of ostentation. Of the general powers of his mind, and particularly of his acute and just perception in matters of taste connected with his art, a very favourable opinion will be formed by those who peruse the article SCULPTURE which he contributed to Dr Rees's edition of Chambers's Dictionary.

See Memoir of the late John Bacon, R. A., by the Reverend Richard Cecil. London, 1811.