James Heffernan (sculptor)

James Heffernan (1788 – 21 October 1847) was an 18th/19th century Irish-born sculptor, later based in London.

Shanahan had a marble yard in Cork and Heffernan was put to work there making fireplaces and gravestones.

There he attended the Royal Academy Schools and trained in fine sculpture under Charles Rossi, then under Francis Chantrey.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1816 to 1830 and won the Royal Academy's silver medal for Sculpture in both 1815 and 1817 and went on a study tour to Rome before returning to work for Chantrey (with Chantrey apparently taking credit for much of his work).

[2][3] Heffernan returned to Cork in 1843, but this proved to be a poor choice and he died there, of dysentery, on 21 October 1847 as part of the general decline in Ireland in that year.