Francis Derwent Wood (15 October 1871– 19 February 1926) was a British
sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
.
Biography
Early life
Wood was born at
Keswick in Cumbria and studied in Germany and returned to London in 1887 to work under
Édouard Lantéri
Édouard Lantéri (31 October 1848 – 22 December 1917) was a French-born British sculptor and medallist whose romantic French style of sculpting was seen as influential among exponents of New Sculpture. His name is also frequently spelle ...
and Sir
Thomas Brock
Sir Thomas Brock (1 March 184722 August 1922) was an English sculptor and medallist, notable for the creation of several large public sculptures and monuments in Britain and abroad in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
His mo ...
; he taught at the
Glasgow School of Art
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and ...
from 1897 through to 1905. He produced a good deal of architectural sculpture typical of the time, including four large roof figures for the
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. It reopened in 2006 after a three-year refurbishment and since then has been one of Scotland's most popular visitor attractions. The museum has 22 galleries, h ...
in Glasgow, the British Linen Bank also in Glasgow, and the Britannic House in London for architect Sir
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...
. Freestanding sculptures by him may also be seen in various galleries, such as his 1907 ''
Atalanta
Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology.
There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...
'' (
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...
, with a bronze cast of it now in
Chelsea Embankment Gardens),
World War One
As he was too old (at 41) to enlist in the Army at the onset of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Wood volunteered in the hospital wards and his exposure to the gruesome injuries inflicted by the new war's weapons eventually led him to open a special clinic: the Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department, located in the Third London General Hospital,
Wandsworth
Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan
The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...
. Instead of the rubber masks used conventionally, Wood constructed masks of thin metal, sculpted to match the portraits of the men in their pre-war normality. Just as had been happening with soldiers operated upon with the recent advances in
plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a surgical specialty involving the restoration, reconstruction or alteration of the human body. It can be divided into two main categories: reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Reconstructive surgery includes craniofa ...
, Wood's masks provided each with a renewed self-confidence, even self-respect, though they often proved uncomfortable. Face wounds were known to be the most devastating. By hiding the wounds behind the mask, the young men were able to return to relationships with their families and friends.
Each mask required many weeks of work on the part of Woods, and other surgeons who followed his lead. A plaster cast was taken of the subject's wounded face – but only after the wounds and subsequent surgeries had totally healed. The crude process was itself a trial. The plaster cast was used to make a squeeze of
plastocene or clay. This disfigured bust was used as the foundation of all prosthetic restorative work, with the sculptor working to replace the missing components of the face with the shapes from the opposing side. The mask itself was made from a thin copper sheet – galvanized copper to facilitate painting after forming. Painting a realistic portrait onto the copper mask was as challenging as the sculpting: each was finished while the patient wore it, in order to most accurately match the tone of the flesh with the enamels.
The ward stayed open only two years, from 1917 to 1919. There is no record of the exact number of masks made, but it must have been several hundred: a tiny drop among the more than 20,000 wounded in the face. His earnest efforts may not have helped statistically, but they influenced the lives of those he helped dramatically.
Post-war
Wood was professor of sculpture at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
from 1918 through to 1923, with
William Rothenstein
Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...
as Principal.
He produced a representation of
The Crucified Soldier
The Crucified Soldier refers to the widespread story of an Allied soldier serving in the Canadian Corps who may have been crucified with bayonets on a barn door or a tree, while fighting on the Western Front during World War I. Three witnesse ...
called ''
Canada's Golgotha
''Canada's Golgotha'' is a bronze sculpture by the British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood, produced in 1918. It illustrates the story of the Crucified Soldier from the First World War and depicts a Canadian soldier crucified on a barn door and su ...
'' in 1919, which caused a diplomatic flap between the Canadian and German governments. His ''
Machine Gun Corps Memorial
The Machine Gun Corps Memorial, also known as ''The Boy David'', is a memorial to the casualties of the Machine Gun Corps in the First World War. It is located on the north side of the traffic island at Hyde Park Corner in London, near the Welli ...
'' at
Hyde Park Corner
Hyde Park Corner is between Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair in London, England. It primarily refers to its major road junction at the southeastern corner of Hyde Park, that was designed by Decimus Burton. Six streets converge at the junc ...
was also controversial.
He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1920.
Personal life
Wood married Florence Mary Schmidt (1873–1969) in early 1903. Wood died in London in 1926 at the age of fifty-five. His grave can be found at St Michael's Church,
Amberley, West Sussex
Amberley is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, north of Arundel. Its neighbours are Storrington and West Chiltington. The village is noted for its ...
, with that of his wife.
Selected public works
Other works
* ''The Penitent Thief'', 1918, bronze head of one of the two thieves crucified alongside Jesus Christ, held at
Lady Lever Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral ...
, PortSunlight
* ''Psyche'', 1920, bronze, Regarded as a good example of the "New Sculpture" movement, located at the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
* Derwent Wood modelled, 1897–1900, the figures of the Ship's Prow and Zephyrs which adorned the British Linen Company Bank building in Govan Road, Glasgow.
* Statue of Queen Victoria, bronze, 1903, now in the museum at Sheesh Mahal in
Patiala
Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, India, Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the ''Qila Mubarak, Patiala, Qila Mubarak ...
* 1912 bronze statue of
Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...
in the uniform of a royal field marshal, now in the museum at Sheesh Mahal in Patiala
* Statue, in bronze, of
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a senior British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his scorched earth policy against the Boers, h ...
, c. 1920, originally erected in Kolkata, then moved to the Kitchener Military College and when that closed erected in the courtyard of the Dhubela Museum in
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Maggie.jpg, Derwent Wood's Maggie.
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Lord Henn Collins.jpg, Derwent Wood's Lord Henn-Collins
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Study of female torso.jpg, Derwent Wood's female nude
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Abondance.jpg, Derwent Wood's Abondance
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Statue pour sommet de fontaine.jpg, Derwent Wood's Female nude
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Edouard VII.jpg, Derwent Wood's bust of Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...
File:Francis Derwent Wood - La Baigneuse.jpg, Derwent Wood's La Baigneuse
File:Francis Derwent Wood - Faune et outre.jpg, Derwent Wood's Faune et outre
See also
*
Anna Coleman Ladd
Anna Coleman Watts Ladd (July 15, 1878 – June 3, 1939) was an American sculptor in Manchester, Massachusetts, who devoted her time and skills throughout World War I to designing prosthetics for soldiers who were disfigured from injuries recei ...
, another sculptor making masks for soldiers disfigured in World War I
References
External links
*
National Public Radio story, February, 2007Project Façade's page on WoodGillies Archives, Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup UKSuzannah Biernoff, ‘The Rhetoric of Disfigurement in First World War Britain,’ ''Social History of Medicine'' (Feb. 2011).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Francis Derwent
1871 births
1926 deaths
20th-century British sculptors
20th-century English male artists
Academics of the Glasgow School of Art
Artists of the Boston Public Library
British architectural sculptors
British people of World War I
English male sculptors
People from Keswick, Cumbria
Royal Academicians