BANKS, THOMAS English sculptor, son of a surveyor who was land steward to the duke of Beaufort, was born in London on Dec. He was taught drawing by his father, and in 1750 was apprenticed to a wood-carver. In his spare time he worked at sculpture, and before 1772, when he obtained a travelling studentship and proceeded to Rome, he had already exhibited several fine works. He spent two years in St. Petersburg (Leningrad), being employed by the empress Cather ine who purchased his "Cupid tormenting a Butterfly." On his return he modelled his colossal "Achilles mourning the loss of Briseis," a work full of force and passion. The monuments in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, to Captain Westcott and Captain Burges, and in Westminster Abbey to Sir Eyre Coote are by him. His bust of Warren Hastings is in the National Portrait Gallery. Banks's best-known work is perhaps the colossal group of "Shakespeare attended by Painting and Poetry," now in the garden of New Place, Stratford-on-Avon. He died in London on Feb.
2 1805.