Henry Scheemakers
Henry Scheemakers (birth name: Hendrik Scheemakers) (Antwerp, 4 November 1670 - Paris, 18 July 1748) was a Flemish-born sculptor who worked in England and France in the first half of the 18th century. He was the brother of the better known Peter Scheemakers with whom he collaborated on some projects in England. Life. Scheemakers' exact date of birth is not known, and most of what is known about him is from his works. He was born in Antwerp into a family of sculptors, being christened Hendrik Scheemakers. His father was the Antwerp sculptor Pieter Scheemaeckers and his mother  was Catharina Verhulst (or Catharine van der Hulst). His brother Peter Scheemakers and his nephew Thomas Scheemakers were also sculptors. The marriage of his parents ended in an acrimonious divorce in 1707. Testimony by multiple witnesses during the divorce procedure of 2 July 1708 attested to the awful behaviour of the father Pieter, who mistreated and beat his wife and children calling them 'pigs' and flew into drunken rages during which he destroyed their home. He learned his art from his father. After arriving in England around 1720, Scheemakers went into partnership with the English sculptor Sir Henry Cheere, 1st  Baronet on a monument to Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (c. 1728; Edenham, Lincolnshire), in which the life-size figure of the Duke clad in Roman armour is flanked by Corinthian columns. He also collaborated with the Flemish sculptor Laurent Delvaux In 1726 John van Nost the younger was his apprentice. In 1733 he left England to live in Paris where he died on 18 July 1748.