Peter Rouw

Peter Rouw II (17 April 1771– 9 December 1852) was a London-based sculptor specialising in bas-reliefs in marble, often in the form of mural church monuments, and in wax miniature portraits, often of a pink hue on black glass. He designed medals, including one of William Wilberforce, and also made a few marble busts. He exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1807 Rouw was appointed modeller of cameos and gems to the Prince Regent.

He was the son of the sculptor Peter Rouw I (fl. 1787- 1793), apparently of Dutch origin. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1788 and exhibited there until 1838. He was a friend of the sculptor Joseph Nollekens. He had an address in Norton Street, Fitzroy Square. In later life he lost the sight of one eye and experienced financial problems. One of his students was Samuel Joseph (1791–1850), who is known for making the statue of William Wilberforce in Westminster Abbey.

His brother Henry Rouw (c.1780–1855) was probably the ‘H Rouw Junior’ who exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy between 1796 and 1803. Pyke describes him as a wax modeller and painter but gives no examples of his works in wax. Rupert Gunnis felt that as a statuary Henry was not the equal of his brother. His best-known works are the monument to Jane Akers at Yalding, being a relief of an angel bearing a child heavenwards, and the monument to the Aubrey brothers in Paddington depicting the figure of Victory standing next to a sarcophagus with medallion portraits of the two officers. He was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green.

Of the works of Peter Rouw, seven of his wax portrait reliefs or medallions are held by the National Portrait Gallery in London, namely of Charlotte Augusta Matilda, Princess Royal (c.1795), James Watt (1802), Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1803), Warren Hastings (1806) and William Pitt the Younger (1809). The Victoria & Albert Museum holds a medallion in pink wax on black glass made by him of Prince Lucien Bonaparte (1814), the Duke of Wellington (1822) and posthumously in 1814 of Matthew Boulton, the partner of James Watt. Rouw wrote as follows to M.R. Boulton, the subject's son: If any friend should wish to have a copy of your father's portrait the price will be fourteen guineas, as it has taken me more time than I expected it would when I gave you the amount. An enclosed invoice referred to "a portrait of the late M. Boulton 25 gns., a copy of the same 10 gns". Graham Pollard deduced: "As 10 guineas was Rouw's standard price, the sum of 25 guineas must refer to the large-scale wax. The example in the Victoria and Albert Museum is signed and dated 1814. It is therefore one of the copies mentioned by Rouw, priced at fourteen guineas".

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