Damer, Anne Seymour (1748–1828)

English sculptor. Born Anne Conway in 1748 (some sources cite 1749); died on May 28, 1828; daughter of Field Marshal Henry Seymour Conway (1721–1795); friend of Nelson, Walpole, and Napoleon; married John Damer, in 1767 (died 1776).

Anne Damer, while engaged in conversation with Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume, criticized some plaster casts they had seen. When Hume remarked that it was easier to criticize than create, Damer rose to the challenge by obtaining some wax and sculpting a head that she then showed him. Her work had enough merit to surprise him, but Hume renewed his challenge by suggesting that the difficulty of chiseling outweighed that of working with wax. Damer executed a bust in stone, which, though crude, elicited his admiration. From then on, she devoted herself to the practice of sculpture.

Damer traveled considerably and kept a journal. She studied under Ceracchi, acquired technique in the studio of Bacon, and learned the elements of anatomy from George Cruikshank. After visiting Italy in order to observe Grecian art, she began to imitate its pure, simple style. She married the Honorable John Damer in 1767, but the marriage was unhappy. He committed suicide in 1776.

Damer executed a number of works, including an eight-foot marble statue in the Registry Office, Edinburgh; two colossal heads in Portland stone, which ornament the keystone of the bridge at Henley-upon-Thames; a statue of George III; a bust of Fox, which she personally presented to her friend Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815 (in return, she received a snuffbox with the portrait of the emperor set in diamonds); a bust of another friend Lord Horatio Nelson, who sat for the work immediately after his return from the Battle of the Nile (she presented this sculpture to the city of London); busts of her father, of Sir Humphry Davy, of her mother, and of herself.

Anne Damer died on May 28, 1828. Though she at one time intended to publish her journal, in her will she commanded all her papers be destroyed; among them were not only her manuscripts but many interesting and valuable letters. Maintaining that the distinction of being an artist was all that she wanted in life, she requested that her working apron and her tools be placed beside her in her coffin.