John Henry Foley
John Henry Foley in 1863, by Ernest Edwards
Born24 May 1818
Dublin, Ireland
Died27 August 1874(1874-08-27) (aged 56)
Hampstead, London
Resting placeSt. Paul's Cathedral, London
NationalityIrish
Alma mater
Known forSculpture

John Henry Foley RA (24 May 1818 – 27 August 1874), often referred to as J. H. Foley, was an Irish sculptor, working in London. He is best known for his statues of Daniel O'Connell in Dublin, and of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London and for a number of works in India.[1]

While much contemporary Victorian sculpture was considered lacking in quality and vision, Foley's work was often regarded as exceptional for its technical excellence and life-like qualities.[2] He was considered the finest equestrian sculptor of the Victorian era. His equestrian statue of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge for Kolkata was considered, with its dynamic pose of horse and rider, to be the most important equestrian statue cast in Britain at the time. His 1874 equestrian statue of Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet for Kolkata was also widely praised and, like the Hardinge statue, was also considered an important symbol of British imperial rule in India.[3] Foley's pupil Thomas Brock completed several of Foley's commissions after his death, including the statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial.

Biography

Early life

Foley was born 24 May 1818, at 6 Montgomery Street, Dublin, in what was then the city's artists' quarter. The street has since been renamed Foley Street in his honour.[4] His father was a grocer and his step-grandfather Benjamin Schrowder was a sculptor.[5][6] At the age of thirteen, he followed his brother Edward to begin studying drawing and modelling at the Royal Dublin Society school, where he took several first-class prizes.[1][7] In 1835 he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in London, where he won a silver medal for sculpture.[1][7] Both brothers served as studio assistants to the sculptor William Behnes.[2] Foley exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1839.[1] Foley's first significant commission came in 1840 with a sculpture group, Ino and Bacchus for Lord Ellesmere.[7] Youth at a Stream exhibited in 1844 brought greater recognition and the same year he received two commissions from the Palace of Westminster for statues of John Hampden and John Selden.[7] Thereafter commissions provided a steady career for the rest of his life.

Early career and recognition

Foley by C. F. Foley, 1840s

In 1849 Foley was made an associate, and in 1858 a full member of the Royal Academy of Art.[1] He exhibited at the Royal Academy until 1861 and further works were shown posthumously in 1875. His address is given in the catalogues as 57 George St., Euston Square, London until 1845, and 19 Osnaburgh Street from 1847.[8] Foley became a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1861 and an associate of the Belgium Academy of Arts in 1863.[7]

A number of works by Foley featured in the Great Exhibition of 1851, including the marble Ino and Bacchus and a bronze casting of a Youth at a Stream.[9] After the Great Exhibition closed, the Corporation of London voted a sum of £10,000 to be spent on sculpture to decorate the Egyptian Hall in the Mansion House and commissioned Foley to make sculptures of Caractacus and Egeria.[10] In 1854, Foley submitted a design for the proposed monument to the Duke of Wellington to be sited in St Paul's Cathedral which was rejected.[3] Foley's sculpture bronze The Norseman was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863 to considerable acclaim and represented a departure from the more traditional sculpture style of his contemporaries.[11] The art critic Edmund Gosse viewed Foley as having smoothed the ground for the development of the New Sculpture movement in British art.[2]

Equestrian works

Foley received three commissions for large equestrian sculptures of individuals who played prominent roles during the period of British rule in India.

Statue of Lord Hardinge, Governor General of India

The Art Journal hailed Foley's equestrian statue of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge as a "masterpiece of art" and "a triumph of British art".[12][2] William Michael Rossetti declared it to be "markedly at the head of British equestrian statues of any period".[2] Completed in 1857, the statue was the first large equestrian statue not to be conventionally cast but to be created by electroforming, building up layers of metal for each piece of the statue which were then joined together by electroplating.[12] The statue, which showed Hardinge's horse trampling a broken Sikh artillery piece, was exhibited outside the Royal Academy in London before it was shipped to Kolkata where it was erected at Shaheed Minar near Government House in 1859.[12][13] The statue was regarded as the most important equestrian statue to be created in Britain during the Victorian era and a bronzed plaster version was displayed at the London International Exhibition of 1862.[3] When in 1962, the Kolkata local authorities began removing British imperial monuments, the statue was returned to Britain.[12] Purchased for £35 by Baroness Helen Hardinge, the statue was erected at her home in Kent before, in 1985, it was relocated to the private garden of another Hardinge descendent near Cambridge.[12]

Foley's equestrian statue of Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet was regarded as "one of the most magnificent British sculptures in India."[12] Commissioned in 1861, the statue was cast in London from eleven tons of gunmetal seized by the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[3] Foley depicted Outram in a dynamic pose, turning in his saddle to look backwards while pulling up his horse and he considered it his best equestrian work. The statue was unveiled in May 1874 on the Maidan in central Kolkata on a plinth of Cornish granite.[12] For the Calcutta International Exhibition of 1883-84, the entrance to the exhibition was built around the statue.[3] In the 1960s the statue was moved to the grounds of the Victoria Memorial.[12]

By the time he died, Foley had completed an 18-inch tall model of Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning on horseback. Both horse and rider were depicted in rigid, motionless poses. All the subsequent work on the commission including the full-size modelling, overseeing of the casting and shipping to India and the design of the plinth were completed by Thomas Brock. The statue was originally unveiled at a central location in Barrackpore but was moved in 1969 to a more remote location, a former British military compound where it was placed on a brick base and sited overlooking the grave of Lady Canning.[12]

Albert Memorial

In 1864, Foley was chosen to sculpt one of the four large stone groups, each representing a continent, at the corners of George Gilbert Scott's Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. His design for Asia was approved in December of that year. Foley's Asia, like the other three continental groups, featured a central large animal, in this case an elephant, attended by figures representing different cultures.[2][14] In 1868, Foley was also asked to make the bronze statue of Prince Albert to be placed at the centre of the memorial, following the death of Carlo Marochetti, who had originally received the commission, but had struggled to produce an acceptable version.[15] By 1870, Foley's full-sized model of Albert was complete and had been accepted. However a series of illnesses slowed Foley's progress and by 1873 only the head of the statue had been cast in bronze while hundreds of other parts were still individual plaster figures. Foley died of pleurisy in 1874, blamed by some on the extended periods he had spent working surrounded by the wet clay of the Asia model.[16] When Foley died, his student Thomas Brock took over his studio and his first job was to complete the figure of Albert which he did within eighteen months. By then, the Albert Memorial had already been unveiled without the statue of Albert.[16] After the statue of Albert was installed on the monument, it was, briefly, inspected by Queen Victoria in March 1876 before being boarded up for gilding. That original gilding was removed in 1915 but restored in the 2000s.

Foley died at his home "The Priory" in Hampstead, north London on 27 August 1874, and was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral on 4 September.[17][1] He left his models to the Royal Dublin Society, where he had his early artistic education, and a large part of his property to the Artists' Benevolent Fund.[1] SC Hall, the editor of The Art Journal, described Foley as being "pensive almost to melancholy.. He was not robust, either in body or in mind; all his sentiments and sensations were graceful: so in truth were his manners. His leisure was consumed by thought."[16] A statue of Foley, on the front of the Victoria and Albert Museum, depicts him as a rather gaunt figure with a moustache, wearing a floppy cap.

Legacy

As well as the statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial, Thomas Brock completed several more of Foley's commissions. A statue of Queen Victoria for the Birmingham Council House was commissioned in 1871 from Foley and completed in 1883 by Thomas Woolner.[18] Foley's articled pupil and later studio assistant Francis John Williamson also became a successful sculptor in his own right, reputed to have been Queen Victoria's favourite.[19] Other pupils and assistants were Charles Bell Birch, Mary Grant and Albert Bruce Joy.[2]

Following the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, a number of Foley's works were removed, or destroyed, as the individuals portrayed were considered hostile to Irish independence. They included those of Lord Carlisle, Lord Dunkellin (in Galway) and Field Marshal Gough in Phoenix Park.[20] The statue of Lord Dunkellin was decapitated and dumped in the river as one of the first acts of the short-lived "Galway Soviet" of 1922.[21]

Selected public works

1839-1849

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates		 Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
Catherine Jane Prendergast (1811-1839) St. Mary's Church, Chennai 1839 Bas-reliefMarble [12]
John Hampden St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster 1847 Statue on pedestalMarble [22]
William Stokes Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Dublin 1849 Statue on pedestalMarble A former president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

1850-1859

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates		 Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes

More images		 Hermaphroditus or A Youth at a Stream Bancroft Gardens, Stratford-upon-Avon 1851 StatueBronze Cast in bronze by J. Hadfield for The Great Exhibition of 1851.[23]
John Selden St Stephen's Hall, Palace of Westminster 1853 Statue on pedestalMarble [22]

More images		 Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge Shaheed Minar, Kolkata 1857, erected 1859 Equestrian statue on pedestalBronze5.7m statue on 6m pedestal Grade II listing Removed from Kolkata and set up on a Hardinge family property at Penshurst, Kent. It was later relocated to the garden of a house in Over, Cambridgeshire.[24][12][25]

1860-1864

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates		 Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes

More images		 John Nicholson Lisburn Cathedral 1862 ReliefMarble [26]
Charles Barry Palace of Westminster, London 1863 Seated statue [22][2][27]
John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone The Asiatic Society of Mumbai 1864 Statue on plinthMarble [12]

More images		 Oliver Goldsmith Trinity College, Dublin 1864 Statue on pedestalBronze [2]

More images		 Father Theobald Mathew St. Patrick's Street, Cork 1864 Statue on pedestalBronze Q55027847

More images		 Charles John, Earl Canning Westminster Abbey After 1862 Statue on pedestalMarble [28]

More images		 Asia Albert Memorial, London 1864 Sculpture groupStone Grade I listedQ120199176 [29][30]
Nusserwanji Maneckji Petit (1827-91) Gowalia Tank, Mumbai 1865 Statue on pedestalMarble Pedestal by Paolo Triscornia of Carrara[12]

1865-1869

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates		 Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
Sir Henry Marsh, 1st Baronet Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Dublin 1866 StatueMarble [31]
John Sheepshanks Victoria & Albert Museum 1866 BustMarble78.7cm tall [32]

More images		 Monument to Daniel O'Connell O'Connell Street, Dublin 1864, unveiled 1882 Statue on pedestal with supporting figuresBronze and stone11.7m tall Q33123185 [2][33]
Albert, Prince Consort Birmingham Council House 1866 Statue on pedestalCarrara marbleStatue 230cm, pedestal 93cm [18]

More images		 Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde George Square, Glasgow 1867 Statue on pedestalBronze and granite Category BQ17792870 [34]

More images		 Statue of Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea Waterloo Place, London 1867 Statue on pedestalBronze Grade IIQ25311606 First unveiled n Pall Mall. Moved to the War Office, Whitehall, in 1906. In 1915 it was moved to Waterloo Place.[35][16][36]

More images		 Albert, Prince Consort Leinster House, Dublin 1868 Statue on pedestal with supporting figuresBronze

More images		 Edmund Burke Trinity College Dublin 1868 Statue on pedestalBronze and stone
John Fielden Centre Vale Park, Todmorden Designed 1863, erected 1869 Statue on pedestalBronze and granite Grade II [37][30]
Sir Dominic Corrigan Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Dublin 1869 StatueMarble [38]

1870-1874

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates		 Date TypeMaterialDimensions DesignationWikidata Notes
Lord Carlisle Phoenix Park, Dublin 1870 Statue on pedestal Statue removed 1956
Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning Barrackpore, India 1874 Equestrian statueBronze Completed posthumously from Foley's model by Thomas Brock[22][39][12]

More images		 Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet Maidan, Kolkata 1874 Equestrian statue on pedestalBronze and Cornish granite Q92360193 Relocated to the gardens of the Victoria Memorial, Kolkata[39][12]

More images		 Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness Grounds of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin 1875 Seated statue on pedestalBronze and stone

More images		 Stonewall Jackson Capitol Square, Richmond, Virginia Unveiled 1875 Statue on pedestalBronze and stone [7][40]

More images		 Albert, Prince Consort Albert Memorial, London Installed 1876 Seated statueGilded bronze4.2m tall statue Grade IQ120199176 Completed by Thomas Brock[29]

More images		 Henry Grattan College Green, Dublin 1876 Statue on pedestalBronze Model shown in Dublin in 1872; statue inaugurated January 1876.

More images		 Michael Faraday Royal Institution, London 1876 StatueMarble Q120448320 The statue was completed by Thomas Brock after Foley's death and installed in 1876.[41]
Robert James Graves Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, Dublin 1877 StatueMarble Completed by Albert Bruce Joy after Foley's death[6]

More images		 William Rathbone V Sefton Park, Liverpool 1877 Statue on pedestal with relief panelsPortland stone Grade IIQ2633129 Statue by Foley, relief panels by Brock [42]

More images		 Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough Chillingham Castle, Northumberland 1878 Equestrian statue on pedestal Previously in Phoenix Park, Dublin

More images		 Michael Faraday Savoy Place, London 1989 StatueBronze Q27154696 Bronze copy of Foley's 1876 marble statue of Faraday in the Royal Institution.[16]

Other works

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Foley, John Henry" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 599.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Foley, John Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 23 September 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9786. Retrieved 4 October 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Martina Droth, Jason Edwards & Michael Hatt (2014). Sculpture Victorious: Art in the Age of Invention, 1837-1901. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300208030.
  4. ↑ A.P. Behan (Spring 2001). "Bye Bye Century!". Dublin Historical Record. Old Dublin Society. 54 (1): 82–100. JSTOR 30101842.
  5. ↑ John T. Turpin (March 1979). "The Career and Achievement of John Henry Foley, Sculptor (1818-1874)". Dublin Historical Record. 32 (2): 42–53. JSTOR 30104301.
  6. 1 2 University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "John Henry Foley RA, RHA". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 James Mackay (1977). The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 0902028553.
  8. ↑ Algernon Graves (1905). The Royal Academy: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors from its Foundations in 1769 to 1904. Vol. 3. London: Henry Graves. pp. 130–2.
  9. ↑ "Ino and Bacchus". Yale Center for British Art. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  10. ↑ Catalogue of the Sculpture, Paintings, Engravings, and Other Works of Art belonging to the Corporation, together with the Books not included in the Catalogue of the Guildhall Library. Part the First. Printed for the use of the members of the Corporation of London. 1867. pp. 43–7.
  11. ↑ Jeremy Cooper (1975). Nineteenth-century Romantic Bronzes, French, English and American Bronzes 1830–1915. David & Charles. ISBN 0715363468.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Mary Ann Steggles & Richard Barnes (2011). British Sculpture in India: New Views & Old Memories. Frontier Publishing. ISBN 9781872914411.
  13. ↑ University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "Equestrian statue of Lord Hardinge". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  14. ↑ HW Janson (1985). Nineteenth-century Sculpture. Thames & Hudson.
  15. ↑ F. H. W. Sheppard (General Editor) (1975). "Albert Memorial: The memorial". Survey of London: volume 38: South Kensington Museums Area. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 12 October 2011. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 John Blackwood (1989). London's Immortals. The Complete Outdoor Commemorative Statues. Savoy Press. ISBN 0951429604.
  17. ↑ Sinclair, W. (1909). Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. p. 469.
  18. 1 2 George T. Noszlopy (1998). Public Sculpture of Birmingham including Sutton Coldfield. Liverpool University Press / Public Monuments & Sculpture Association. ISBN 0-85323-692-5.
  19. ↑ "Francis John Williamson (1833-1920)". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  20. ↑ Notes on destruction and removal, accessed 20 January 2009
  21. ↑ Citation, accessed 6 July 2009
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Turpin, John T. (1979). "Catalogue of the Sculpture of J.H. Foley". Dublin Historical Record. 32: 108–18.
  23. ↑ Waymark UK Image Gallery
  24. ↑ Sworder, John. "St Peter's Church". Fordcombe Village. Archived from the original on 10 January 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  25. ↑ Historic England. "Equestrian statue of Viscount Hardinge in the grounds of Albion Villa (Number 6 Church End) (1331332)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  26. ↑ Potterton, Homan (1975). Irish Church Monuments, 1570-1880. Belfast.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  27. ↑ Malcolm Hay & Jacqueline Riding (1996). Art in Parliament - The Permanent Collection of the House of Commons. Jarrod Publishing & The Palace of Westminster. ISBN 0-7117-0898-3.
  28. ↑ "George, Charles and Stratford Canning". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  29. 1 2 Historic England. "Prince Consort National Memorial (1217741)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  30. 1 2 Jo Darke (1991). The Monument Guide to England and Wales. Macdonald Illustrated. ISBN 0-356-17609-6.
  31. ↑ "Memorial statue of Sir Henry Marsh in the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland" (PDF). The Internet Archive. Dublin University Press, 1867. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  32. ↑ "John Sheepshanks (bust)". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  33. ↑ Potterton, Homan (1973). The O'Connell Monument. Dublin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  34. ↑ Historic Environment Scotland. "George Square, Field Marshall Lord Clyde Statue (Category B Listed Building) (LB32694)". Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  35. ↑ Historic England. "Statue of Sydney Herbert (1239318)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  36. ↑ Philip Ward-Jackson (2011). Public Sculpture of Britain Volume 1: Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster. Liverpool University Press / Public Monuments & Sculpture Association. ISBN 978-1-84631-662-3.
  37. ↑ Historic England. "The Fielden Statue (1314073)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  38. ↑ Christine Casey (2005). Dublin: the city within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 483. ISBN 9780300109238.
  39. 1 2 "Information on Sculptures". Victoria Memorial Hall. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  40. ↑ "Monument to Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson in Capitol Square". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  41. ↑ Frank AJL James, ed. (2017). 'The Common Purposes of Life': Science and Society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 73. ISBN 978-1351963176.
  42. ↑ Historic England. "Statue of William Rathbone (1073451)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  43. ↑ Emily Fisher (April 2005). "Foley: Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA". Tate. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  44. ↑ Aileen Dawson (1999). Portrait Sculpture A Catalogue of the British Museum collection c. 1675-1975. British Museum Press. ISBN 0714105988.
  45. ↑ "Relief, William Hookham Carpenter". British Museum. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  46. ↑ "John Henry Foley". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
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