John Bushnell

John Bushnell (died 1701) was an English sculptor, known for several outstanding funeral monuments in English churches and Westminster Abbey. Several anecdotes concerning his haughty disposition and increasing eccentricity were repeated in artistic circles and recorded in the eighteenth century by George Vertue in his notebooks.

His widow Mary and his sons continued to live in his half-finioshed house near Hyde Park, London after his death, keeping strangers curious to see his remaining sculprures at bay, and by degrees destroying them.

Bushnell's reputation stood high enough in the mid-nineteenth century for an imaginary portrait representing him to be included among the world's great sculptors in the "Frieze of Parnassus" on the Albert Memorial, London.

elected works

The following list is drawn from Gunnis 1968. [Rupert Gunnis, "A Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660-1851" rev. ed. 1968, "s.v." "Bushnell, John"]
*Monument of Alvise Mocenigo, S. Lazaro dei Medicanti, Venice
*"Charles II" and "Catherine of Braganza". Standing figures on Temple Bar, London, 1670.
*Funeral effigy for the Duke of Albemarle's funeral in Westminster Abbey, the face and hands in wax, the robed figure in stucco, 1670.
*Funeral monument of Henry Stanley, Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, 1670.
*"Charles I", "Charles II", and "Sir Thomas Gresham" for the Royal Exchange, 1671. Conserved in Old Bailey.
*Monument to Abraham Cowley (died 1667), Westminster Abbey, 1674.
*Monument of William Ashburnham and his wife, Ashburnham, Sussex, 1675.
*Monument of Lord Mordaunt, Fulham Parish Church, 1675.
*Monument to Elizabeth, Lady Myddleton, and two portrait busts of Sir Thomas and Lady Myddelton, Chirk Parish Church, Denbighshire1676.
*Monument of Sir Palmes Fairborne, Westminster Abbey, 1686.
*(attributed) Monument of Lady Henrietta Wentworth, Toddington, Bedfordshire, 1686.

References