Humphrey Hopper

Humphrey Hopper (1764/5–1844) was an English mason and sculptor. He was given the government commission for the memorial in St Paul's Cathedral to General Andrew Hay.

Hopper studied in the Royal Academy Schools during his thirties, from 1801, already having exhibited at the Royal Academy. He gained the gold medal there in 1803, for an original group of The Death of Meleager.

In 1807 Hay was a competitor for the Pitt and Nelson memorials in the London Guildhall. He developed a line of plaster figures designed to hold lamps, working with architects who designed niches for them, such as Lewis Wyatt. He lived in the Marylebone area of London, settling in Wigmore Street.

Hopper died on 27 May 1844 at 13 Wigmore Street, Marylebone.

Hopper executed some classical figures, but in later life concentrated on work as a monumental mason, including memorial busts. and monuments. Monuments included those to Josiah Spode II (1827), Sir William Curtis, 1st Baronet (1829), Eliab Harvey (1830) and John Henry North (1831), and Robert Hooper and Sir William Coles Medlycott, 1st Baronet (both 1835).

The public monument to Major-General Hay in St Paul's Cathedral was criticised, in particular by George Lewis Smyth (1800–1853) who objected to the nakedness of the figure of Hercules poised to catch the falling Hay. From 1815 he exhibited a series of busts at the Royal Academy, showing for the last time there in 1834.

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