Rysbrack, Michael

Rysbrack, Michael (1694–1770). Flemish-born sculptor (a member of an Antwerp family of artists), who settled in England about 1720. He soon achieved success and for most of the 1720s and 1730s he was the leading sculptor in the country. His best-known work is perhaps the monument to Sir Isaac Newton (designed by William Kent) in Westminster Abbey (1731), with its eloquent reclining figure of the great scientist, and his most prestigious commission (won in preference to Scheemakers) is the monument to William III in Queen Square, Bristol (1733–5), generally regarded as the finest equestrian statue made in England in the 18th century. However, from about 1740 (the year of Scheemakers's acclaimed Shakespeare monument in Westminster Abbey), Rysbrack began to lose ground to Scheemakers and also to Roubiliac. He was a versatile and prolific artist, hard-working and widely admired. His output included tombs, statues, and portraits (often in the form of busts in the Antique manner, a fashion he introduced to England), and he also made architectural elements such as chimney pieces. His style was vigorous and dignified, less sombre than that of Scheemakers. He did not match the brilliant vivacity that characterizes Roubiliac's work, but he could sometimes rival him in beauty of handling.