Carlo Marochetti

January 4, 1805 (age 62)

Turin, Piedmont, Italy

His glittering career took off in the late 1820s, when he started exhibiting work at the Paris Salon. In 1829, he made his reputation with his gold medal winning statue of A Young Girl Playing with a Dog, and enhanced his prestige as a major sculptor with his subsequent commissions in Paris for the Altar in the Church of the Madeleine (1834); the relief panel of The Battle of Jemappes on the Arc de Triomphe (c. 1833-6); and the tomb of the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery (1836). He produced numerous portrait busts and genre groups in marble and plaster, and became celebrated for his magnificent bronze equestrian statues of Emmanuel Filiberto in Turin (1833); The Duke of Orleans, Paris; and Richard the Lionheart in London (1860). A popular figure amongst European Royalty and their courts, he fled to Britain during the Revolution of 1848, accompanying the deposed French King, and quickly endeared himself to the British royal family and aristocracy with his urbane personality and brilliant sculptural style. He settled in London, living at 30 Onslow Square (later at 34) and worked from a huge studio and foundry in Sydney Mews. Receiving a number of commissions for marble portraits and public monuments, his celebrity irritated his rivals who criticised his public work as being too "flashy and theatrical. " Amongst his many other public monuments are: Lord Clive, Shrewsbury (1860); The Duke of Wellington, Leeds (1855); Lord Clyde, London (1864); Robert Stephenson, London (1871); the Duke of Wellington Column, Strathfield Saye; and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy in Bombay. He also collaborated with Sir Edwin Landseer on the four colossal bronze lions for Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, which were cast in his own foundry. Marochetti provided Glasgow with four bronze statues, three of which are equestrian: the Duke of Wellington in Royal Exchange Square (1840-4); Queen Victoria in George Square (1854), which was moved from St Vincent Place and altered 1866; and the equestrian Prince Albert, also in George Square (1866). His fourth statue in the city was pedestrian: James Oswald (1856), which was moved to George Square from Charing Cross in 1875. Marochetti produced three different models for the Queen Victoria statue which reveal that significant alterations were made to the design before the present monument was re-erected in George Square, in 1866. Marochetti also executed the Crimean War Memorials at the former British Military Hospital at Scutari, Turkey (1856), and in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. He crowned his English career with the commission for the effigy portraits in marble of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor. Carlo Marochetti died suddenly on December 29, 1867, at Passy, France, and was buried in Vaux-sur-Seine.

Carlo Marochetti

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sculptor

Background

Carlo Marochetti was born on January 4, 1805, in Turin, Italy, the son of a lawyer in the service of the Emperor Napoleon. He was raised in Paris and became a French citizen in 1814.

Education

Marochetti as a sculptor there with Bosio and Gos at the École des Beaux-Arts before completing his studies in Rome.

Career

His glittering career took off in the late 1820s, when he started exhibiting work at the Paris Salon. In 1829, he made his reputation with his gold medal winning statue of A Young Girl Playing with a Dog, and enhanced his prestige as a major sculptor with his subsequent commissions in Paris for the Altar in the Church of the Madeleine (1834); the relief panel of The Battle of Jemappes on the Arc de Triomphe (c. 1833-6); and the tomb of the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery (1836).

He produced numerous portrait busts and genre groups in marble and plaster, and became celebrated for his magnificent bronze equestrian statues of Emmanuel Filiberto in Turin (1833); The Duke of Orleans, Paris; and Richard the Lionheart in London (1860).

A popular figure amongst European Royalty and their courts, he fled to Britain during the Revolution of 1848, accompanying the deposed French King, and quickly endeared himself to the British royal family and aristocracy with his urbane personality and brilliant sculptural style.

He settled in London, living at 30 Onslow Square (later at 34) and worked from a huge studio and foundry in Sydney Mews. Receiving a number of commissions for marble portraits and public monuments, his celebrity irritated his rivals who criticised his public work as being too "flashy and theatrical. "

Amongst his many other public monuments are: Lord Clive, Shrewsbury (1860); The Duke of Wellington, Leeds (1855); Lord Clyde, London (1864); Robert Stephenson, London (1871); the Duke of Wellington Column, Strathfield Saye; and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy in Bombay. He also collaborated with Sir Edwin Landseer on the four colossal bronze lions for Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, which were cast in his own foundry.

Marochetti provided Glasgow with four bronze statues, three of which are equestrian: the Duke of Wellington in Royal Exchange Square (1840-4); Queen Victoria in George Square (1854), which was moved from St Vincent Place and altered 1866; and the equestrian Prince Albert, also in George Square (1866). His fourth statue in the city was pedestrian: James Oswald (1856), which was moved to George Square from Charing Cross in 1875.

Marochetti produced three different models for the Queen Victoria statue which reveal that significant alterations were made to the design before the present monument was re-erected in George Square, in 1866.

Marochetti also executed the Crimean War Memorials at the former British Military Hospital at Scutari, Turkey (1856), and in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. He crowned his English career with the commission for the effigy portraits in marble of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria in the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor.

Carlo Marochetti died suddenly on December 29, 1867, at Passy, France, and was buried in Vaux-sur-Seine.

Achievements

The distinguished sculptor, Carlo Marochetti was responsible for some of Britain's best-known public monuments, notably the bronze equestrian statue of Richard the Lionheart that stands outside the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster.

Among the international honours bestowed upon him were a Baronetcy of the Italian Kingdom, becoming Baron Carlo Marochetti of Vaux (after his father's chateau), and the Legion d' Honneur. In England, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, RA (1861).

Membership

In 1861, Carlo Marochetti became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Connections

colleague:: Edwin Henry Landseer

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