Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Sculptor, of London, for whom see Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of Bristish Sculptors 1660-1851 (revised edition, 1968), 45-48. Behnes is said to have attended the Dublin Society's Schools during the brief period in the first decade of the nineteenth century when his family lived in Ireland. As an established London sculptor he executed two monuments for Ireland: one to Bishop Knox in St Columb's Cathedral, Derry (1834)(1) and one to Alexander Alexander in Christ Church, Limavady, Co. Derry (before 1835).(2)  He also partly executed a statue of George III for the Royal Dublin Society, which was completed by CONSTANTINE PANORMO  CONSTANTINE PANORMO in 1845, almost twenty years after the original commission.(3)

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References



(1) Homan Potterton, Irish Church Monuments 1570-1880 (UAHS, 1975), 37.
(2) Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams, Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol. 9: Parishes of Co. Londonderry II, 1833-9(1991), 77.
(3) Paula Murphy, Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture:  Native Genius Reaffirmed  (Yale University Press:  New Haven & London, 2010), 12.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for BEHNES, WILLIAM *#


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, KILDARE STREET, LEINSTER HOUSE (ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY)
Date: 1826ca
Nature: Statue of George III.   Completed in 1845 by Constantine Panormo.
Refs: Paula Murphy, Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture:  Native Genius Reaffirmed  (Yale University Press:  New Haven & London, 2010), 12.

Building: CO. DERRY, DERRY, CATHEDRAL OF ST COLUMB (CI)
Date: 1834
Nature: Monument to Bishop Knox, with figures of Faith and Charity; 'erected from a subscription of both clergy and laity amounting to £500'.
Refs: Homan Potterton, Irish Church Monuments 1570-1880 (UAHS, 1975), 37; Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster (1979), 382

Building: CO. DERRY, LIMAVADY, CHRIST CHURCH (CI, DRUMACHOSE PARISH)
Date: 1835a
Nature: Monument to Alexander Alexander, of Limavady, which cost £250.
Refs: Angélique Day & Patrick McWilliams, Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol. 9: Parishes of Co. Londonderry II, 1833-9(1991), 77

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PATRICK STREET, ST PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL (CI)
Date: ?
Nature: Statue of Henry Joy (1767-1838), Chief Baron of the Exchequer. 'probably the work of William Behnes'. Moved to Four Courts, 1865.
Refs: Paula Murphy, Nineteenth-Century Irish Sculpture:  Native Genius Reaffirmed  (Yale University Press:  New Haven & London, 2010), 73,135..