Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet (1703 – 15 January 1781) was an English sculptor and monumental mason. He was the older brother of John Cheere, also a notable sculptor.

Personal life and career Born in Clapham, Surrey (now part of London), he was the son of Sarah and John Cheere (d.1756). Gunnis suggests he was initially apprenticed to John Nost.

Cheere was apprenticed in 1718 to mason-sculptor Robert Hartshorne, an assistant to William and Edward Stanton. Scheemakers d. 1748) and took on many apprentices.

According to the Pevsner Buildings of England series guides, Henry Cheere was "the first English-born sculptor to match the virtuosity of the continentals" and "formed his style on the small, crisp, curvaceous shapes of the French sculptor [Roubiliac], though his monuments never approached Roubiliac's in ease and inventiveness. Much of his work is unsigned, as is his commonly considered c.1760 masterpiece at Shadoxhurst, Kent.

Works

Monument to Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (c. 1728; Edenham, Lincolnshire) (with Henry Scheemakers) Statue of Queen Caroline for The Queen's College, Oxford Statue of Christopher Codrington for All Souls College, Oxford Monument to Lord Chief Justice Raymond (d. 1732) at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire Gateposts to Sausmarez Manor, Guernsey Memorial to Capt Philip de Sausmarez in Westminster Abbey (c. 1747) Monument to Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy (1666–1732) in Westminster Abbey Bust of Nicholas Hawksmoor – in National Portrait Gallery Memorial to Sir John Brownlow, 5th Bt of Humby, Viscount Tyrconnel and Baron Charleville, in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Belton, Lincolnshire Monument to architect Thomas Archer, in church of St Mary, Hale, Hampshire Marble statue of barrister Sir George Cooke (1645–1740) of Harefield (c. 1744–1749) – in private collection Monument to James Cooper (d.1743) and his wife in All Saints, West Ham, Essex Funerary monument to James Walsingham (1728) in parish church of St. Mary the Virgin, Little Chesterford, Essex Various gods of Greece and Rome, including Minerva in Southill Park, August and Flora for Longford Castle, and the River God for Stourhead Monument to the Gwyn sisters and their friend, Ann Hester Antrim, in the Church of St Mary, Great Baddow, Essex (c1753)