Thomas Carlyle
after Thomas Woolner, RA (Hadleigh 1825 - London 1892)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1899 - 1900
Materials
Cast iron
Measurements
292 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Carlyle's House, London
NT 263804
Summary
Circular bronzed iron plaque of Thomas Carlyle, (1795-1881) in profile, facing right, after a medallion by Thomas Woolner (1825-1892) produced in 1855. Inscribed around top edge on rim 'LION FOUNDRY Co KIRKINTILLOCH' and around bottom edge, on rim, 'BY T. WOOLNER Sc 1855'. Beneath the profile head of Carlyle, inscribed 'CARLYLE'. Simulated bronzed effect. Two integral lugs for fixing on reverse.
Full description
The portrait medallion of Thomas Carlyle by his friend the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner is possibly based on a plaster version in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG), given by Sir James Caw (1864-1950), who had casts made from it, one of which he gave to the National Portrait Gallery in London (Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, I, pp. 91-92, NPG 1241). Before he took up his post as Curator of the SNPG in 1895, Caw worked as an engineering draughtsman in Glasgow and Edinburgh, so would certainly have known the managers of the Lion Foundry. It may well be that he gave a cast to the Foundry for casting in iron, as a way of further disseminating Carlyle’s image. Ormond stated that the Carlyle House medallion was identical with the versions in the NPG and SNPG. Although the general image, showing Carlyle before he grew a beard in 1854, is similar, there are in fact variations in the form of the hair and the truncation of the bust. As a young sculptor, Thomas Woolner was eager to make portraits of two of the best-known literary figures of the day, Thomas Carlyle and Alfred Tennyson. He made medallions of each man in 1851. Carlyle wrote to Woolner in May 1851 that ‘The Medallion is favourably hung up; and excites the approbation of a discerning public – as it deserves to do.’ (Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R.A. Sculptor and Poet. His Life in Letters, London 1917, p. 12). Nevertheless, Woolner was dissatisfied with both medallions and made a new version in 1855. Woolner wrote that year to his friend the painter William Bell Scott that ‘I have made a new one of him [Tennyson], much better than the last; also a new Carlyle, better than the old one. Carlyle is extremely pleased with it, and says it is the best likeness of him that has ever been done.’ (ed. W. Minto, Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William Bell Scott, 2 vols., London 1892, II, p. 29). Woolner exhibited versions of what were probably this new image at the Royal Academy, in 1856 and 1857. Ormond described the SNPG and NPG plasters as examples of the 1855 version, but it may be that they in fact reflect Woolner’s first 1851 version. A plaster medallion identical to the Carlyle’s House image, signed and dated ‘T. Woolner Sc. 1855.’, given by the sculptor to the artist Samuel Lawrence, was formerly on the art market (The Library of Horace N. Pym, Sotheby’s London, 23 April 1996, lot 20; Roy Davids Ltd.; Roy Davids Collection, Bonhams London, 3 October 2005, lot 26; Campbell Wilson, Pre-Raphaelite, Neo-Raphaelite, Post-Raphaelite catalogue, May 2006, no. 75). Another unsigned version in plaster, said to have come from the sculptor’s family, is in the Mary Mellish Memorial Library, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. A contemporary photograph of an example of the signed 1855 medallion, formerly in the possession of the sculptor’s family, is inscribed from Woolner to the Rev. W.A. Milburn and dated 16 December 1857 (National Portrait Gallery archive) Other examples have appeared on the art market (Christie’s London, The Nineteenth Century, 3 November 1994, lot 293, bronze; Sotheby’s London, 21 November 1995, lot 126, plaster, with the companion portrait of Tennyson; Sotheby’s London, An Exceptional Eye, 14 July 2010, lot 99, bronze, with Tennyson (lot 100). The Lion Foundry in Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, was established in 1880, adopting its definitive name of the Lion Foundry Co. Ltd. in 1893. During the following decades the Lion Foundry became a leading supplier of architectural and decorative ironwork, until its closure in 1984. Jeremy Warren, 2018
Provenance
Unknown date and method of acquisition.
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Carlyle's House, Chelsea)
Marks and inscriptions
Round rim at top: 'LION FOUNDRY Co KIRKINTILLOCH.' Round rim at bottom: 'BY T.WOOLNER Sc 1855' Beneath portrait: 'CARLYLE'
Makers and roles
after Thomas Woolner, RA (Hadleigh 1825 - London 1892), sculptor Lion Foundry Company Ltd, Kirkintilloch, manufacturer