Phyllis Muriel Cowan Archibald (1880 – 9 March 1947), later Phyllis Archibald Clay, was a British sculptor. Archibald was an Associate member of the

Royal Society of British Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British charity established in 1905 which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London. It ...

from 1923, and member of the

Glasgow Society of Lady Artists The Glasgow Society of Lady Artists was founded in 1882 by eight female students of the Glasgow School of Art with the aim of affording due recognition to women in the field of art. It has been described by Jude Burkhauser as "the first residenti ...

Biography

Phyllis Archibald was born in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

. Her father, Edmund Douglas Archibald, 1851–1913, was a meteorologist and a Professor of Mathematics and by 1891 the family were living in her mother's native Scotland. Phyllis Archibald was educated at the Park School in Glasgow and then studied 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 1903 to 1906 before spending several years studying sculpture in Paris. Before World War I began, Archibald moved to London where she established herself as a sculptor of animals and portrait figures, working in wood, stone and with a variety of metals. In 1911 Archibald married the journalist Charles Clay, 1856–1941, and the couple lived at

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in London then at Bletchingley in Surrey before, as a widow, she moved to Grasmere where she died in 1947.

Awards and exhibitions

Archibald was a prolific exhibitor of her art, most notably with the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...

, the

Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI) is an independent organisation in Glasgow, founded in 1861, which promotes contemporary art and artists in Scotland. The institute organizes the largest and most prestigious annual art exhibitio ...

, and the

. Outside of Scotland, Archibald exhibited works at the

Royal Academy 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 pur ...

and with the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London, at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

in Liverpool, and at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

. Between 1927 and 1937 Archibald had twelve works included in exhibitions of the Society of Women Artists. During 1906 and 1907, Archibald created a set of four stone sculptures of allegorical female figures for the facade of the

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...

building in

St Enoch Square St. Enoch Square is a public square in Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the junction of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, two of the city's busiest shopping streets. History The Square sits on land that once was the western part of Glas ...

in Glasgow. Elsewhere in Glasgow, she sculpted a figure representing ''Science & Industry'' for a warehouse entrance in West Campbell Street. Archibald completed a number of works for charities and churches, notably figures for choir stall of the Congregational Church at Whitchurch in 1910. At least one piece by her was included in the 1924 British Empire Exhibition in London.

Selected works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Archibald, Phyllis 1880 births 1947 deaths 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art People from Royal Tunbridge Wells People from Grasmere (village)