Matthew Cotes Wyatt
Bashaw, The Faithful Friend of Man Trampling under Foot his most Insidious Enemy by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, Victoria and Albert Museum
, 1833Matthew Cotes Wyatt (1777 – 3 January 1862) was an English painter and sculptor and a member of the
architects
and sculptors.
Early life
Wyatt was born in London, the son of the architect
Royal Academy Schools
in 1800. On 29 December 1801 he married Maria McClellan (d. 1852), the widow of Edward McClellan, a sea captain. They had fours sons, Matthew, James, George, and Henry Wyatt.
Through the influences of his father, in 1805 at the age of 28, he was employed by
Royal Academy.[2] He was proposed for associate membership of the Academy in 1812, but was not elected and never became a member. At about this time he taught himself modelling and carving, moving from painting to sculpture, hoping to benefit from the proposals for great memorials after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.[3] His first public work was a memorial sculpture to Lord Nelson that was unveiled at Exchange Flags Square in Liverpool, in October 1813.[1][4]
Later career
However, it was the marble
Pall Mall East and Cockspur Street.[5]
Wyatt also sculpted the enormous bronze equestrian
statue of the Duke of Wellington which originally stood on the top of the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. This was erected in 1846, but many thought the statue was too large for the arch and it was taken down and re-erected in Aldershot
in 1885, where it has been recently restored.
The Duke of Rutland employed Wyatt extensively at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, where he designed and decorated the Elizabeth Saloon and carved the marble monument to the Duchess in the mausoleum, as well as her full-length statue and bust. He also carved a marble table, complete with cloth, in the dining-room.[6]
In 1831
The Great Exhibition of 1851.[7]
Legacy
Wyatt died at his home, Dudley Grove House, Harrow Road, London, on 3 January 1862, and was buried in
Queen Victoria's Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, and was knighted in 1848. James (1808 – 1893) followed his father's profession and designed the pediment of the Commercial Bank of Scotland in George Street, Edinburgh. The other sons, George Wyatt (d. 1880) and Henry Wyatt (d. 1899), were both architects and builders and were involved in the development of the Bishop of London's estate in Paddington.[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b Obituary in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' 1862 p. 372.
- ^ The exhibition of the Royal Academy (exhibition catalogues)
- ^ a b F. M. O'Donoghue, 'Wyatt, Matthew Cotes (1777–1862)', rev. John Martin Robinson, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- ^ Mersey Maritime Museum website
- ^ G. H. Gater and F. R. Hiorns, ed. (1940). "Pall Mall East". Survey of London: volume 20: St Martin-in-the-Fields, pt III: Trafalgar Square & Neighbourhood. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
- ^ I. Eller, History of Belvoir Castle (1841), p. 207.
- ^ The Victorian Peeper: Nineteenth-century Britain through the looking glass
- ^ Cansick, Frederick Teague (1872). The Monumental Inscriptions of Middlesex Vol 2. J Russell Smith. p. 114. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Matthew Cotes Wyatt.
- Wyatt and the Bagshaw sculpture
- Wyatt in the National Archives
- Wyatt and the Wellington statue
- Conservation of Wyatt's memorial to Lord Nelson in Liverpool
- "Obituary: Matthew Cotes Wyatt", The Art Journal, publ. Virtue, 1862, page 86
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