Carew, John Edward

by Frances Clarke

Carew, John Edward (c.1782–1868) sculptor, was born at Tramore, Co. Waterford, and was possibly the son of a local sculptor, who signed himself ‘Carew fecit Waterford’. He appears to have studied art for some time in Dublin, before travelling to London. By about 1809 he was engaged as an assistant to the sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott RA. He remained in Westmacott's employment for the next fourteen years, and, by the end of his tenure, was said to have been paid as much as £1,500 to £1,800 per annum. This sum was further supplemented by payments amounting to £800 for outside commissions, produced, after 1821, at his own studio in Edgware Road. The turning point in his career came about 1823, when Lord Whitmore introduced him to George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd earl of Egremont, a leading patron of the arts. Egremont bought his sculpture ‘Arethusa’, and duly became his employer. Carew remained in Egremont's employment until the latter's death in November 1837, during which time he executed a variety of busts, statues, fountains, and chimney pieces for Petworth, Egremont's estate in Sussex. He was also engaged for many years in restoring sculpture that Egremont purchased in Rome.

In 1831 Carew established himself in Brighton, where he carved an altarpiece for the local Roman catholic church, and where, in 1837, he carved the memorial for the tomb of the prince of Wales's unacknowledged wife, Mrs Fitzherbert. Following the death of Egremont, Carew expressed disappointment at not receiving an expected legacy from his former employer. He subsequently took action against the earl's executors, and initially claimed £50,000 from the estate for works executed, though this figure was later lowered considerably. The case was heard at Lewes assizes in March 1840, during which it became clear that Carew had been generously paid during his patron's lifetime. He was nonsuited, after which proceedings relating to his insolvency began the following year and were concluded in May 1842.

Carew's best-known works include statues of the actor Edmund Kean (1833) for Drury Lane theatre, London, of Henry Grattan (qv) (1844) for St Stephen's Hall, Westminster, and his City of London commission for a statue of Sir Richard Whittington (1844), sculpted for a niche in the Royal Exchange, for which he also produced the royal coat of arms. On the advice of Sir Charles Eastlake the government chose him to execute a bronze relief, the ‘Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson’, for the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. This was the first of the reliefs to be put in place in December 1849. In 1853 he completed an altarpiece for the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory in Warwick Street, London, one of his last commissions. As an exhibitor he was very successful. His sculptures ‘A boy playing marbles’, ‘The madonna and child’, and ‘The adoration of the magi’, shown at the British Institution in 1842, were particularly well received. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 he showed ‘Alto-relievo for a temple in Sussex’. Between 1812 and 1848 he exhibited regularly at the RA, and in 1826 and 1827 he contributed to the exhibitions of the RHA. His 1826 contribution, the cast of ‘Arethusa’, was presented to the academy.

In his latter years Carew suffered from partial blindness, and by the time of his death, at his home at 40 Cambridge Street, Hyde Park, London, on 30 November 1868, he had receded from public notice. Although he had been a most successful and prolific sculptor in his heyday, no obituary appeared in The Times, or any of the journals dedicated to the arts. He was buried at Kensal Green cemetery. Of his many children, a son, F. Carew, also practised sculpture and exhibited with the RA.