BEHNES, William

English sculptor of German origin. The son of a Hannoverian piano maker, he was brought up in Dublin, where he worked for his father and attended a public drawing school. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1813 and set up as a portrait painter shortly afterwards. He began sculpting around 1819 after taking lessons from P. F. Chenu (1760-after 1833) and soon obtained commissions for portrait busts. One of his early sitters was Princess Victoria (marble, 1829; Royal Collection, Windsor Castle), and in 1837 he was appointed Sculptor in Ordinary to the Queen, though he received no further royal commissions.

Behnes was the master of a busy studio, where he executed some fine church monuments, such as the one to Charlotte Botfield (marble, 1825; Norton, Northants, All Saints), a few ideal works, including Lady Godiva (plaster, c. 1844; Coventry, Council House), and many portrait statues and busts. Such works as the statue of Dr Babington (marble, 1837; London, St Paul’s Cathedral) and the busts of Robert Vernon (marble, London, Tate) and Richard Porson (marble, 1845; Eton, Berks, College Library) are among the finest examples of Victorian naturalistic portraiture.

From the 1820s to the 1840s Behnes was second only to Francis Chantrey as England’s most prolific and successful portrait sculptor. However, he suffered, moreover, from ‘evil habits’, darkly alluded to by his biographers. He was described as ‘another victim to the pest of drink’. He was left financially crippled and a prey to moneylenders. His waywardness probably led to his exclusion from Royal Academy membership, though he exhibited there between 1815 and 1863. His brother, the sculptor Henry Behnes (1801-837), changed his surname to Burlowe about 1830 because, claimed Hall, of the ‘tarnish on the name’.