A BRONZE STATUE OF CARACTACUS BY J.H. FOLEY (IRISH, 1818-1874).h.79cm. John Henry Foley, RA (1818-1874): John Henry Foley was probably the most influential sculptor working in Europe during the middle decades of the 19th century. A champion of Britain¢®¯s imperial values, his breathtaking equestrian masterpieces strode across city squares and parklands from Dublin to Calcutta. Queen Victoria personally requested that the Irishman create the statue of her beloved Prince Albert which sits at the core of the Albert Memorial. When Foley died in 1874, the Queen decreed that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey. Few of those who attended his funeral knew about his humble origins in the back streets of Dublin where his father was a grocer and his grandfather an amateur sculptor. The child prodigy mastered his craft under the brilliant Edward Smyth at the Royal Society Schools in Dublin. He arrived in London aged 18 on the eve of Queen Victoria¢®¯s reign and gradually rose through the ranks to become one of the most celebrated members of the Royal Academy. At the time of his premature death aged 54, his workshop was filled with incomplete commissions. The complexity of his life was such that, amongst these, were the aforesaid statue of Prince Albert, the towering monument of Irish nationalist icon Daniel O¢®¯Connell that dominates central Dublin today, and the statue of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in Richmond, Virginia.

Decorative Interior
Antique Statues