Nicholas Read (sculptor)

His masterpiece is the large and highly odd monument to Admiral Richard Tyrell in Westminster Abbey.

Read was born in London and was a pupil at St Martins Lane Academy, when his father started to press the sculptor Roubiliac to take him as an apprentice.

[1] In 1762 Read won a "premium" of 100 guineas from the Society of Arts for a marble figure of Actaeon and his dog.

The monument had a half naked Tyrell broken and floating upwards (detached from its background) with flat clouds (like pancakes) while below HMS Buckingham lies on the seabed trapped by the coral.

[1] Read "lost his reason" (i.e. had mental health problems) from 1780 onwards and died on 11 July 1787.