Dictionary of


Art  &  Artist




 

 Thomas Banks

 

Thomas Banks


(bapt London, 22 Dec 1735; d London, 2 Feb 1805). English sculptor. To his contemporaries and immediate heirs, Banks was one of the most original British Neo-classical sculptors, distinguished from John Bacon (i) and Joseph Nollekens by his greater dedication to the antique spirit rather than to the fashionable classical style alone. His persistent efforts to establish a market for modern gallery sculpture were exceptional in an age when most patrons preferred restored antique marbles, replicas, pastiches, busts and memorials. Sir Joshua Reynolds is said to have considered him to be ‘the first British sculptor who had produced works of classic grace’ and John Flaxman ranked him alongside Canova in stature.
 

Thetis dipping Achilles into the River Styx, 1790