MAROCHETTI (Carlo, Baron, 1805-1867, Italian-born Sculptor, R.A.)

Autograph Letter Signed 'C Marochetti' to 'My dear Aran', telling him not to "fear any mistake about the bas reliefs of the Queen's statue. I am not yet ready to cast them and I will not finish the moulds without showing them to the Committee. As to the Statue of Sir Rt Peel, if it is given to Hoffman[?] I will have the greatest pleasure in assisting him in any way, if I can enable him to do a good statue, if he required my advice and the documents I have in my hands. If I have no work occupying my men and my foundry when his model is completed I shall be glad to give him the disposal of them and he will not be in a difficulty, because the foundry of Mr Robinson in Pimlico will always be a resource to him, in case I could not give him much assistance. I hope I shall see you soon. I am finishing my models in order to be taking some holydays, which I deserve, you may be sure of it! Remember me to our dear freinds ...", 4 sides 8vo., Brompton, 22nd August

Marochetti came to London at the Paris uprising of 1848. He sculpted a statue of Richard Coeur-de-Lion for the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was cast in bronze by public subscription, and placed outside the House of Lords at Westminster. He also made statues of Queen Victoria and Wellington, and the Inkerman memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral. On the 10th July 1850, eight days after Peel's sudden and unexpected death, a public meeting in the court house at Bury Town Hall resolved that "a monument be erected in some central part of the town as a perpetual memorial of our eminent townsman." A Testimonial Committee was appointed to erect the memorial, and subscriptions were invited to raise funds for it. Eventually a sum of £2,700 was collected. The committee decided that the memorial should take the form of a bronze statue on a granite base. Rather than hold an open competition, it was decided to invite submissions from notable sculptors. Twenty one artists were asked to submit ideas, including Baily, Carlo Marochetti, John Henry Foley and William Calder Marshall. In February 1851 an exhibition was held at the town hall to allow the public to inspect the submissions. Many statuettes, busts and architectural designs were displayed.
In the 1860s he championed a scheme for a set of statues celebrating British engineers to be erected in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Westminster. The scheme was rejected but three of the statues, of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke were erected separately elsewhere. His monumental statue of Robert Peel in Parliament Square was melted down and the metal used for the smaller model of Peel by Matthew Noble which replaced it.

Item Date:  1853

Stock No:  41734      £225

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