Christopher Hewetson, Sculptor
(fl. c. 1772-1794)
Sculptor
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
He was born about 1739, the son of Christopher Hewitson of Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, and his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Hewetson of Cloughsutton, Co. Carlow. He was sent by his friends to study in Rome, and there, between 1772 and 1781 he executed an elaborate monument in marble of Dr. Baldwin, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, who died in 1758. This monument arrived in Dublin in August, 1784, and was placed in the Examination Hall, where it now is. It consists of a sarcophagus of dark porphyry, with a recumbent figure of the Provost represented at the point of death, his head supported by a female figure emblematic of the University; an angel points to the wreath of immortality which it holds in its hands. For this work Hewetson was paid £1,000. The expense of bringing it from Rome to Dublin amounted to £416.
Hewetson sent a bust to the R.A. exhibition in 1786, and again in 1790. He was still residing in Rome in 1794, and died soon after. W. B. S. Taylor, in his history of the University of Dublin, says: "We lament to say that this artist of genius died at Rome in the prime of his life, shortly after the great powers of his mind had begun to develop themselves in his art, which thereby suffered an incalculable loss."
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