Joseph James Whitehead (18 January 1868 – 17 January 1951) was an English sculptor and stonemason.

Life

Mother and Son by Joseph Whitehead, Woodside Cemetery, Paisley

He was born in Aston,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, the son of John Whitehead (1845–1904), also a sculptor. He joined the family sculpting company, J. Whitehead and Son, which ran studios at 64 Kennington Road, 74 Rochester Row, and

Vincent Square Vincent Square is a grass-covered square in Westminster, London, England, covering 13 acres, lined with mature trees including London Planes. In among a network of backstreets, it chiefly provides playing fields for Westminster School, who own ...

, London. Whitehead is known, in particular, for the creation of a monument to

Father Damien Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. or Saint Damien De Veuster ( nl, Pater Damiaan or '; 3 January 1840 – 15 April 1889), born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacr ...

in Molokai, Hawaii (circa 1891); a statue of John Rae in Kirkwall Cathedral, Orkney; the Brown Dog memorial in Battersea, London (1906); a statue of

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working ...

in Bideford, Devon (1906); a sculpture on the Titanic Memorial in Andrews Park, Southampton (1914); and several war memorials in London and Stafford."Joseph James Whitehead"
Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, University of Glasgow History of Art. Retrieved 26 April 2012. He exhibited in the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

1889 to 1895. The work on the Titanic Memorial was only partial, and under the supervision of

William Hamo Thornycroft Sir William Hamo Thornycroft (9 March 185018 December 1925) was an English sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster. He was a keen student of classi ...

, master sculptor. The monument was unveiled in 1914. Whitehead's contribution is a figure of Charles Frederick William Hatfield (1879–1954), an engineer for the White Star Line, who, although not on the Titanic, is representative of others of that trade lost on the day. His monument of "Mother and Son" in Woodside Cemetery, Paisley is typical of his skills. It is a modernised version of Michelangelo's "Pieta" in St Peters in Rome, and has huge emotion. Although technically for a single soldier, Lt Daniel Duncan, and his mother who died of grief three months later it is often seen as emblematic of the futility of war in general.Paisley's Public Sculptures

Life

See also

Notes

Further reading