Peter Scheemakers

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Peter Scheemakers (1691–1781) was a Flemish Roman Catholic sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. Scheemakers studied both classical and baroque styles of sculpture in Rome before settling in London in 1716.

Scheemakers is perhaps best known for executing the William Kent-designed sculpture of William Shakespeare which was erected in Westminster Abbey in 1740, as well as that to John Dryden in the same church. He made a very large number of church monuments which may be seen across England. For instance, the memorial to Topham Foote (or Foot) in the parish church of St John the Baptist, Windsor. This burial monument, which includes the young man's bust and the Foote family crest, greets visitors in the main High Street entrance, just 300 feet from the Henry VIII gate to Windsor Castle. He also sculpted a memorial for the Petty family, marking the family burial place in All Saints Parish Church, High Wycombe, which depicts the family in Roman dress.

Scheemakers was the teacher of Joseph Nollekens, amongst others. Towards the end of his life, he returned to Antwerp where he had been born, and died there. Scheemakers' brother, Henry Scheemakers, and his son, Thomas Scheemakers, were both also sculptors.