Sir Thomas Brock (1 March 184722 August 1922) was an English sculptor and

medallist A medalist (or medallist) is an artist who designs medals, plaquettes, badges, metal medallions, coins and similar small works in relief in metal. Historically, medalists were typically also involved in producing their designs, and were usually ...

, notable for the creation of several large public sculptures and monuments in Britain and abroad in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His most famous work is the

Victoria Memorial The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building on the Maidan in Central Kolkata, built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, Empress of India from 1876 to 1901. The largest monument to a monarch anywhere ...

in front of

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

, London. Other commissions included the redesign of the effigy of Queen Victoria on British coinage, the massive bronze equestrian statue of

Edward, the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

, in

City Square, Leeds City Square is a paved area north of Leeds railway station at the junction of Park Row to the east and Wellington Street to the south. It is a triangular area where six roads meet: Infirmary Street and Park Row to the north, Boar Lane and Bish ...

and the completion of the statue of Prince Albert on the

Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial, directly north of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens, London, was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Prince Albert, who died in 1861. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic R ...

Biography

Brock was born on 1 March 1847 in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

. He was the only son of a painter and decorator and attended the Government School of Design in Worcester, after which he undertook an apprenticeship in modelling at the Worcester Royal Porcelain Works. In 1866 he became a pupil of the sculptor John Henry Foley and also enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a gold medal for sculpture in 1869. He met and befriended Frederic, Lord Leighton, whose emphasis on realism and naturalism in sculpture led Brock to become part of the New Sculpture movement and to develop his talent for sympathetic and realistic portraiture. After Foley's sudden death in 1874, Brock finished several of his commissions, including the monument to

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

in Dublin and a large bronze equestrian statue of

Lord Canning Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, (14 December 1812 – 17 June 1862), also known as The Viscount Canning and Clemency Canning, was a British statesman and Governor-General of India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the first Vice ...

for

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. It was his completion of Foley's statue of Prince Albert for the

which first brought Brock to prominence and secured his position as an establishment sculptor. Brock was elected an associate of 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 ...

in 1883 and became a full member in 1891. He was a founding member, and the first president, of the Society of British Sculptors. Thomas Brock in Studio

Brock's group ''The Moment of Peril'' (now in the garden of

Leighton House The Leighton House Museum is an art museum in the Holland Park area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. The building was the London home of painter Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton (1830–1896), who commi ...

) was followed by ''The Genius of Poetry'', at the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen. A plaster model for ''Eve'' was shown at the Royal Academy in 1898; a marble version (1900) is in the collection of the Tate and Brock also cast some smaller bronze replicas and other imaginative works that mark his development. His portrait works include busts, such as those of Lord Leighton and

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

, statues, such as Sir

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Ow ...

and Henry Philpott, bishop of Worcester, and sepulchral monuments such as that of Lord Leighton in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

. Brock made statues of Victoria to celebrate her golden and diamond jubilees and also designed the depiction of her "veiled" or "widowed" head, used on all gold, silver and bronze coinage between 1893 and 1901. In 1901 Brock won the commission to make a colossal equestrian statue of ''

Edward the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

'' for

Leeds City Square City Square is a paved area north of Leeds railway station at the junction of Park Row to the east and Wellington Street to the south. It is a triangular area where six roads meet: Infirmary Street and Park Row to the north, Boar Lane and Bish ...

. The same year, he was given perhaps his most significant commission, the vast multi-figure Imperial Memorial to Queen Victoria, to be erected in front of

. The unveiling of this memorial took place on 16 May 1911, and according to legend

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

was so moved by the excellence of the memorial that he called for a sword and knighted Brock on the spot. In any event, it was on the same day that the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main c ...

’s Office notified ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...

'' that the king had ordered that Brock be appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) a ...

. From 1914 to 1919 Brock returned to the post of president of the Society of British Sculptors. Brock married in 1869 and had eight children. He died in London on 22 August 1922 and is buried at

Mayfield, East Sussex Mayfield and Five Ashes is a civil parish in the High Weald of East Sussex, England. The two villages making up the principal part of the parish lie on the A267 road between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne: Mayfield, the larger of the t ...

Public monuments

1875–1889

1890–1899

1900–1909

1910–1919

1920 and later

Other works

* Equestrian bronze ''A Moment of Peril'' (1880) now in the collection of

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

. * Statue of

Thomas Gainsborough Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...

at the Royal Academy in

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. To ...

, London. * Statue of Queen Victoria,

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra ...

, 1905, removed to storage in

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...

after the 1947 independence of India. The statue was originally on a pedestal with bronze figures of ''Truth'' and ''Justice'' at the base and located on a marble platform in an ornamental lake. The supporting figures are now missing. * Bronze statue of Queen Victoria, erected 1904 at

Cawnpore Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations ...

and now in the Uttar Pradesh State Museum, Lucknow. Thought to be a cast of the design Brock used for his statues of the Queen at Agra, Hove, Brisbane and Carlise. * Bust of Henry Lee, in the hall of the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations ...

* Busts of Henry W. Longfellow at Grand Pre, Nova Scotia * Busts of

Joseph Lister Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventative medicine. Joseph Lister revolutionised the craft of ...

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

and

Frederic Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...

in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. * Marble statue on pedestal of Sorabjee Shapurjee Bengallee, 1898, south-east corner of the Oval,

Fort, Mumbai Fort is a business and art district in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. The area gets its name from the defensive fort, Fort George, built by the British East India Company around Bombay Castle. The area extends from the docks in the east, to ...

* Marble bust of Sir Cowasjee Jehangir, 1915, Jehangir Public Hall, India * Statue of

George Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe George Sydenham Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe, (4 July 1848 – 7 February 1933) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He later wrote antisemitic and racist pamphlets for the British far right, as well as at least one nove ...

, erected 1919, inside entrance to Science Institute College, Mumbai * Marble bust for India of Darasha Ruttonjee Chichgur, 1903, current location unknown * Marble seated statue on a pedestal of

Dinshaw Maneckji Petit Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, 1st Baronet (30 June 18235 May 1901) was an Indian entrepreneur and founder of the first textile mills in India, as well as a great philanthropist. He was part of the Petit family and became the first Petit baronet ...

, shown at the Royal Academy in 1916 and subsequently erected near the

Victoria Terminus Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bombay station code: CSMT ( mainline)/ST (suburban)), is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The terminus was d ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brock, Thomas 1847 births 1922 deaths 19th-century British sculptors 20th-century British sculptors 19th-century English male artists 20th-century English male artists Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools Artists' Rifles soldiers English male sculptors Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Artists from Worcester, England Royal Academicians