Banks, Thomas (1735–1805)

English sculptor, one of the leading neoclassicists of the 18th century. He worked in Italy between 1772 and 1779, where he studied Greek and Roman art. In 1781 he went to St Petersburg, Russia, where he won the patronage of Catherine II, though he soon returned to London. There are monuments by Banks in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Banks was born in London and apprenticed at the age of 15 to an ornamental woodcarver, studying in the evenings with the leading monumental sculptor Peter Scheemakers (1691–1781). In later life he received many public and private commissions, among them the monument to Penelope Boothby in Ashbourne church, Derbyshire, created in 1793.