Gaspar van der Hagen

[2][3] He is only known for his work created during his stay in England where he was an assistant in the workshop of the prominent Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack.

In the Guild records his name is spelled Gaspaer Verhaghen and Gaspar Verhagen and it is noted that he is studying sculpture ('belthouwen' or 'beltsnyden') with Alexander van Papenhoven.

These plasters were to be cast after the original terracottas by Rysbrack which were in the collection of the painter Joseph van Aken, another Flemish resident in London.

[9] Van der Hagen continued to reside with his master on Vere Street, Oxford Road until 1766.

The work was based on a terracotta model by Rysbrack, which in turn was inspired by a relief on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

As he was a lifelong bachelor, his sisters Isabella and Catherine (Harman), both living in Antwerp, administered his estate.

Some art historians have attributed small ivory portraits monogrammed 'VDHN', 'VAM', 'GVD', 'GVR' and 'G VDR' to van der Hagen.

The ivory reliefs represent contemporary personalities as well as British Worthies, such as Newton, Milton, Shakespeare and Locke.

[3] Examples are the two almost identical relief portraits of Sir Isaac Newton, one of which is in the Walters Arts Gallery, Baltimore and the other in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

[11] His small bust of the Duke of Cumberland (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) is a very secure, detailed and textured work made after a marble sculpture by Rybrack.