Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Timbrell, Henry
TIMBRELL, HENRY (1806–1849), sculptor, was born at Dublin in 1806, and began his studies there about 1823 under John Smith, master of the Dublin school of sculpture. In 1831 he went to London, and assisted Edward Hodges Baily [q. v.], who continued to employ him occasionally for several years. He was at the same time a student at the Royal Academy. He exhibited in 1833 ‘Phaeton;’ in 1834 ‘Satan in search of the Earth,’ bas-relief; in 1835 ‘Sorrow,’ a monumental group. On 10 Dec. 1835 he gained the gold medal for his group, ‘Mezentius tying the Living to the Dead,’ which was exhibited in 1836. Among his other exhibits at the Royal Academy were several busts; ‘Grief,’ a bas-relief, 1839; ‘Psyche,’ 1842; ‘Hercules and Lycas,’ 1843. With the last-named group he won the travelling studentship of the Royal Academy, and went to Rome in the same year. In 1845 he completed a fine life-sized group, ‘Instruction,’ which was almost totally destroyed in the wreck of the vessel which was bringing it to England. At the time of his death Timbrell was engaged upon two statues for the new Houses of Parliament, and a life-sized statue of Queen Victoria in marble. He died of pleurisy at Rome on 10 April 1849.
His brother, James C. Timbrell (1810–1850), painter, exhibited three pictures of domestic subjects at the Royal Academy and five at the British Institution between 1830 and 1848. He died at Portsmouth on 5 Jan. 1850.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Royal Academy Catalogues; Art Journal, 1849, p. 198.]