Henry Weekes R.A. (1807-1877) was initially apprenticed in 1822 to the sculptor William Behnes (1794/5-1864), and studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1823 to 1826. In 1827 he entered the studio of Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), in whose circle he remained until Chantrey's death, when he took over his studio and completed some of his works.

Rupert Gunnis, in his Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, commented that Weekes 'is ... chiefly known as a portrait-sculptor and his busts have considerable merit'. Weekes did, however, also produce commemorative sculpture: his memorial to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley at Christchurch Priory, Dorset, and that commemorating the social reformers Samuel and Elizabeth Whitbread in the church of St Mary, Cardington, Bedfordshire, are among his greatest works. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1828 and 1877, and became Professor of Sculpture there in 1869; he also exhibited at the British Institution between 1854 and 1867.

Weekes was also involved in the Albert Memorial, executing the marble group depicting Manufactures, one of the four upper groups symbolising the industrial arts. Like his contemporary John Bell (1811-1895), Weekes wrote on the state of British sculpture: his review of 'The Prize Treatise of the Fine Arts Section of the Great Exhibition of 1851', published in 1852, provides an interesting contemporary insight into the sculptors represented. He published his Lectures on Art, delivered at the Royal Academy in 1880.