John Bell (sculptor)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Babes_in_the_woods_john_bell.jpg/220px-Babes_in_the_woods_john_bell.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Albert_Memorial_-_Americas_Group.jpg/220px-Albert_Memorial_-_Americas_Group.jpg)
John Bell (1812–1895) was a British sculptor, born in Bell's Row,
Life
John Bell was born at Hopton Hall Hopton, Suffolk in 1812, and educated in the village school in Catfield, Norfolk.[1]
He studied sculpture in the
In 1837, the year in which Bell established his reputation, his works at the Academy included Psyche and the Dove and a model of The Eagle-Shooter, the first version of what was to become one of his most celebrated statues;
In 1844 Bell entered his Eagle Slayer and
For Coalbrookdale he created the Deerhound hall table[when?] and Andromeda which was bought by Queen Victoria and is now a feature of the gardens at Osborne House.
Una and the Lion, inspired by Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene was also exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and reproduced in miniature in parian ware by Mintons. The full-scale model was placed in the Crystal Palace which burned down in 1936.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Crimean_War_Memorial_Qmin.jpg/220px-Crimean_War_Memorial_Qmin.jpg)
His best-known work is the Guards Crimean War Memorial at the junction of Pall Mall and Waterloo Place in London. Unveiled in 1861, it depicts an allegorical figure representing "Honour" standing above three guardsmen, who are resting on reverse arms as though at a funeral. Although the mournful appearance of the figures reflected the public mood over the wasteful Crimean War, critics were dismayed by the lack of the customary heroic poses.[6]
Bell's 1862 sculpture of Oliver Cromwell originally designed for the 1862 International Exhibition was erected in 1899 in Warrington, Cheshire.[7]
In 1864 Bell accepted the commission to create a marble group representing America, as one of the four large sculptures representing the continents, for the corners of the Albert Memorial in
In 1868, Bell created a female nude from grey-veined marble named The Octoroon, a woman whose one eighth percentage of African blood renders her a slave.[9] According to Mia L. Bagneris it "reflects Victorian Britain’s fascination with the enslaved, American, mixed-race beauty and suggests provocative resonances between the antebellum South and the Orient in the popular imagination." It was purchased in 1876 by the town of Blackburn and can be seen at the Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery.[10]
In 1877, he created a bronze The Manacled Slave/On the Sea Shore.[11]
Bell died on 14 March 1895 at 15 Douro Place, Kensington.[2]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/%22ANDROMEDA%22_%22JOHN_BELL%22_from_-Sculptures_of_Andromeda%2C_the_Toilet_of_Atalanta%2C_Corinna%2C_and_a_Naiad-_MET_DP323119_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-%22ANDROMEDA%22_%22JOHN_BELL%22_from_-Sculptures_of_Andromeda%2C_the_Toilet_of_Atalanta%2C_Corinna%2C_and_a_Naiad-_MET_DP323119_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Legacy
His pupil Francis John Williamson also became a successful sculptor, reputed to have been Queen Victoria's favourite.[12]
His sculpture of
Reception
In 2022, the curators of The Colour of Anxiety, an exhibition at the
References
- ^ Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis
- ^ a b c d Dodgson 1901.
- ^ The other work he showed that year was Infant Hercules Strangling the Snakes; see Graves, Algernon (1905). The Royal Academy: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors from its Foundations in 1769 to 1904. Vol. 1. London: Henry Graves. p. 174.
- ^ "The Eagle Slayer". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ "Displays". ku.edu. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
- ^ Danahay 2022, p. 41.
- ^ Historic England, "Statue of Oliver Cromwell, Bridge Street (1139417)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 18 February 2016
- ^ a b c Bayley 1983, p. 100.
- ^ Laura Cumming (4 December 2022). "The Colour of Anxiety: Race, Sexuality and Disorder in Victorian Sculpture review – nonstop shocks". Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ISSN 0004-3079.
- ^ "Manacled Slave/On the Sea Shore? (Be39) by John Bell - Aberystwyth University School of Art Museums and Galleries". museum.aber.ac.uk. nd. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
- ^ "Francis John Williamson (1833-1920)". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
- ^ Nicola Jennings , Adrienne Childs (nd). "The Colour of Anxiety: Race, Sexuality and Disorder in Victorian Sculpture booklet". Henry Moore Foundation. p. 9. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
Sources
- ISBN 9780859675949.
- Danahay, Martin (2022). War without Bodies: Framing Death from the Crimean to the Iraq War. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1978819207.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dodgson, Campbell (1901). "Bell, John (1811-1895)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
External links
- "Drawings for Sculpture of 'America'". Paintings & Drawings. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 27 June 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk
- myweb.tiscali.co.uk
- frontierpublishing.co.uk
- rsa.org.uk
- spencer.lib.ku.edu
- youricons.macrojuice.com[permanent dead link]
- museums.norfolk.gov.uk