Alfred Gatley (1816 – 28 June 1863) was an English sculptor.

Life

Alfred Gatley was born at

Kerridge Kerridge is a village in Cheshire, England, part of the parish of Bollington. Kerridge borders the neighbouring parish of Rainow. It gives its name to Kerridge Ridge – one of the western foothills of the Pennines – by which it stan ...

, about two miles from Macclesfield in Cheshire, in 1816. As a child he learned the use of a stonemason's tools from his father, who owned and worked two quarries in the Kerridge hills. In 1837, helped by a few friends, he came to London and obtained employment in the studio of

Edward Hodges Baily Edward Hodges Baily (10 March 1788 – 22 May 1867; sometimes misspelled ''Bailey'') was a prolific English sculptor responsible for numerous public monuments, portrait busts, statues and exhibition pieces as well as works in silver. He carved ...

. He also studied in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, and two years later became a student of the Royal Academy, where he gained silver medals for modelling from the antique, and in 1841 for the first time exhibited a "Bust of a Gentleman". In 1843 Gatley left Baily and became an assistant to Musgrave Watson. That year he sent a marble bust of "Hebe" to the Royal Academy, which was purchased by the Art Union of London and reproduced in bronze. In 1844 he received the silver medal for the best model from the life, and exhibited marble busts of " Cupid" and "

Psyche Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" (ψυχή). Psyche may also refer to: Psychology * Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious * ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unconscious by Car ...

", and in 1846 he exhibited a bust of Marshal Espartero, and a model in bas-relief of "The Hours leading out the Horses of the Sun", which went to the library of Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire. Also in 1846, his Memorial to John Whitaker was installed in Macclesfield. In 1848 he sent to the Royal Academy a bust of John Sumner, archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1850 that of Samuel Christie-Miller, who became his close friend. About 1851 he executed a bust of Richard Hooker, now in the

Temple Church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

Although successful in this and other works, Gatley saw no prospect of earning an adequate income in England, and so went to Rome towards the end of 1852, where he took a studio on the Pincian Hill, and made the acquaintance of John Gibson, whose enthusiasm for Greek art he shared. Before long he completed a bust of " Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude", and began statues of "Echo" and "Night". A head in marble, "The Angel of Mercy", and a design for a mural monument were his contributions to the Royal Academy in 1853. Soon after Gatley's settlement in Rome, Samuel Christie-Miller invited him to prepare designs for the sculptural decorations of a mausoleum to be erected to the memory of William Henry Miller at

Craigentinny Craigentinny ( gd, Creag an t-Sionnaich) is a suburb in the north-east of Edinburgh, Scotland, east of Restalrig and close to Portobello. Its name is a corruption of the Scottish Gaelic ''Creag an t-Sionnaich'' meaning "Foxrock" but more like ...

, his estate near

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. Gatley produced a model of a large

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

representing " The Overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea", which was highly praised by Gibson. Early in 1855 he was entrusted with the companion bas-relief, " The Song of Moses and Miriam". The Pharaoh bas-relief was finished in time for the

1862 International Exhibition The International Exhibition of 1862, or Great London Exposition, was a world's fair. It was held from 1 May to 1 November 1862, beside the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, London, England, on a site that now houses ...

, but the 'Song of Miriam' was completed only just before the sculptor's death. In the judgement of Robert Edmund Graves, Gatley's ''DNB'' biographer, "The two bas-reliefs are in strong contrast to each other, the idea of rejoicing being as powerfully given in the one work as is that of fear and impending destruction in the other". Gatley visited England for the last time in 1862, but returned to Rome depressed by his failure to dispose of the works which he had sent to the International Exhibition, where, besides the bas-relief of "Pharaoh", he exhibited his statues of "Echo" and "Night", as well as four marble statuettes of recumbent animals—lions, a lioness, and a tiger—which had gained for him in Rome the name of the "

Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his animal art, paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures ...

of Sculpture". He died from dysentery at Rome on 28 June 1863, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery there.

Legacy

His portrait, painted by a Portuguese artist named Da Costa, used to be in the sculptor's old home at Kerridge. His statue of "Echo" is in the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, and there also are a marble group of "A Boy leading a Bull to Sacrifice" (1861),The title given in the ''DNB''. In the ''ODNB'' the work is titled "A Greek Hero leading a Bull to Sacrifice" and busts of

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

copied in marble from antiques in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

at Rome.

References

;Attribution

External links

Alfred Gatley: Sculptor, 1816–1863

Alfred Gatley - Mapping the Profession and Practice of Sculpture in Britain, 1851–1951

Alfred Gatley
in ''A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660–1851'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gatley, Alfred 1816 births 1863 deaths Infectious disease deaths in Lazio English male sculptors 19th-century British sculptors 19th-century British male artists Deaths from dysentery