John Cheere was an English sculptor active in the 18th century. He was born in London, England in 1709, the son of John Cheere (died 1756) a Huguenot merchant and his wife Sarah (died 1738).
Originally apprenticed as a haberdasher in the 1720s, Cheere later worked in partnership with his elder brother Sir Henry Cheere (born 1703, died 1781) and in 1737 took over the sculptor's yard of John Van Nost along with his and Andrew Carpenter's moulds for making lead figures.
Known as 'the man at Hyde Park Corner', Cheere is noted in particular for his business acumen and for his statues and busts in lead and in plaster which peopled many contemporary landscapes and interiors, both in the UK and abroad, during the period.
Cheere died in London around 1787.
Sources:
Craske, Matthew and Malcolm Baker, ‘Cheere, John (1709–1787)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008) <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5207> [accessed 24 May 2008].
Gunnis, Rupert, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, New and Revised Edition (London: Murray's Sales and Service Co., 1968), pp. 99-100.
Further reading:
Clifford, Timothy and Terry Friedman (eds.), The Man at Hyde Park Corner: Sculpture by John Cheere, 1709-1787, exhibition catalogue, Temple Newsham (Leeds: Leeds Corporation, 1974).
Fulton, Moira, ‘John Cheere, the Eminent Statuary, His Workshop and Practice 1737–1787’, Sculpture Journal, Volume X (2003), pp. 21-39.
Webb, M. I. , ‘Henry Cheere, Sculptor and Businessman and John Cheere – I’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 100, No. 664 (Jul., 1958), pp. 232-240.
-'Henry Cheere, Sculptor and Businessman and John Cheere – II’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 100, No. 665 (Aug., 1958), pp. 274-279.